Mykola Tomenko: The Immunity of the President, Judges and People´s Deputies should be lifted
During the briefing at the parliament, Mykola Tomenko, Vice-Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, answered the questions of the journalists concerning further work of the Parliament. Thus, he stressed the necessity of a systemic approach to the abolition of immunity. He stated that the BYuT Faction was willing to take the Bill of the Party of Regions into account and extend the scope of the Law, voting for the lifting of deputy´s immunity and immunity of all the judges and the President of Ukraine.
As far as the Bill on Amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2009" (re the Rates of Minimum Living Wage and Minimum Wage) was concerned, M.Tomenko stated that two reasons hampered voting for the Bill.
"Firstly, the working group set up to draft the Bill for the Second Reading failed to submit any proposal concerning the ways to compensate annual expenditures in the amount of UAH 37,7 billion", - stated M.Tomenko.
According to the Vice-Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the second reason is the absence of the majority of People´s Deputies from the Party of Regions Faction at the plenary meeting. "88 People´s Deputies together with Viktor Yanukovych failed to attend the today´s meeting", - he stated. At the same time, the Vice-Chairman stated that the aim of the blocking of Parliament´s work was obviously different. The Party of Regions was actually conducting an election campaign with the raise of wages and pensions as one of its most crucial points.
As far as the personnel issues were concerned, M.Tomenko stated that the BYuT Faction was willing to scrutinize all the submissions on appointment and dismissal registered at The Verkhovna Rada.