The Constitutional Assembly should perform its main function and become the ground for all-Ukrainian dialogue on the state and prospects of development of the country.
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Volodymyr Lytvyn said this in his interview to the Rada TV Channel on Friday.
V. Lytvyn believes that the first constituent conference of the Assembly at the Kyiv National University "is the symbol and sign of the fact that the institutes of power should be distanced from work connected with processing of proposals first concerning the concept of constitutional amendments and then concerning practical results for the Fundamental Law."
"The Constitutional Assembly should perform its main function and become the ground for all-Ukrainian dialogue on what is happening in the country, how we should live further and how to delineate the plans of the Ukrainian society in the Constitution," he said. The Head of the Parliament noted that the Assembly should propose the strategy for reformation of the Fundamental Law and propose the draft of constitutional amendments for real nation-wide discussion. By results of such work, the President will submit the respective bill to the Verkhovna Rada, he said.
According to V. Lytvyn, the chapter on human rights and freedoms requires amendment as it does not stipulate the mechanism for their observance. He also stressed that the Fundamental Law should stipulate the mechanism to ensure responsibility of authorities for failure to fulfil some constitutional provisions.
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada stressed that the chapter on the procedure of amendment of the Constitution cannot be amended "so that there is no temptation to amend the Fundamental Law in accordance with this or that position of political forces, for oneself and using certain political moment."
Answering the questions, V. Lytvyn claimed that it is a very negative fact that the opposition refuses to participate in the constitutional process. "This means that a part of society is not represented," he stressed. "Any political force and any politician should use any opportunity to declare their vision and substantiate it if they want to express the interests of the whole society or its part."
The Head of the Parliament called the idea of including the provisions on bilingualism into the new version of the Constitution "utopian". "I believe that this is a utopian idea considering the moods in the society and position of political forces, as well as the expected results of elections," he said.