ON WEDNESDAY, 29 OCTOBER, THE VERKHOVNA RADA OF UKRAINE CONTINUED ITS PLENARY WORK

At the beginning of the morning meeting, Arseniy Yatseniuk, Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, announced that the leaders of Deputy Factions had conciliated the agenda.

Then the People´s Deputies started to scrutinize the issues of the agenda. Olexandr Shlapak, First Deputy Head of the Secretariat of the President of Ukraine, presented the Bill on Immediate Measures to be taken to Prevent Negative Consequences of the Financial Crisis, and on Amendments to certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine, submitted by V.Yushchenko, President of Ukraine. He informed the People´s Deputies about the President´s motions appertaining to the immediate measures aimed at prevention of financial crisis.  

Yulia Tymoshenko, Prime-Minister of Ukraine, presented the Government´s Bill on Minimization of Influence of the Global Financial Crisis on the Economy of Ukraine. She dwelled upon the motions of the Government appertaining to stabilization of Ukrainian banking system, preferential taxation treatment of agriculture, alleviation of tax load on the construction sector, a twenty-per cent reduction of expenditures on administrative apparatus.

The Prime-Minister also commented on differences between the Government´s and the President´s Bills.

Mykola Azarov, People´s Deputy of Ukraine, presented another Bill on Stabilization of the Financial and Economic Situation in Ukraine. Stanislav Arzhevitin, People´s Deputy, also presented the Bill on Minimization of Influence of the Global Financial Crisis on Financial and Banking System and Economy of Ukraine.

Then the People´s Deputies endorsed the motion of the Chairman concerning continuation of the plenary meeting till all the Bills and ratification matters are scrutinized at the First Reading.

Petro Symonenko, People´s Deputy of Ukraine, presented the Draft Resolution on Immediate Measures to be taken in order to minimize the Influence of the Global Financial Crisis on Ukrainian Economy. He stated that the Bill "suggests measures aimed at protection of economy itself, not the banks". He also declared the necessity to exert rigid governmental control over the prices and tariffs.

The People´s Deputies adopted the Bill submitted by the President of Ukraine as a basis at the First Reading (248 votes). The People´s Deputies also passed a resolution to take into account motions of the alternative bills in the course of further elaboration of the Bill to the Second Reading.

Olena Lukash, People´s Deputy, presented the Bill on Amendments to certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine concerning Improvement of Mechanism of Extraordinary Elections and Organization of Activity of the Central Election Commission. She stated that pursuant to the introduced amendments, the Central Election Commission was authorized to alter the period of election procedures during the extraordinary elections of the deputies.  

O.Lukash stressed that adoption of the Bill "would secure appropriate funding of the public authorities; prevent illegitimate interference in their activity and secure implementation of their constitutional authorities".

However, the Bill failed to be adopted at the First Reading (222 votes).

Ksenia Liapina, People´s Deputy, presented the Bill on Amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On the State Budget of Ukraine for Year 2008 and Amendments to certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine (re Counteraction against Financial Crisis and Funding of Extraordinary Elections of the People´s Deputies)". Thus, the Bill envisages establishment of a stabilization fund for overcoming the crisis, and funding of extraordinary elections, as "they are necessary for overcoming economic crisis by means of overcoming the political one".  

However, the People´s Deputies failed to adopt the Bill (222 votes).

Then The Verkhovna Rada ratified:

the Loan Agreement (the Project "Construction of the High-Voltage Power Air Line 750 kilovolt Rivne Nuclear Power Plant - Kyiv") between Ukraine and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (369 votes);

the Loan Agreement (the Project on Electricity Transference) between Ukraine and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Letter on Amendments to the Financial Treaty on the Loan (the Electricity Transference Project) between Ukraine and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (373 votes);

the Treaty between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of Federal Republic of Germany on the Financial Cooperation (Assignation Year 2005) (367 votes);

the Treaty between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of Federal Republic of Germany on the Financial Cooperation (Assignation Year 2006) (375 votes).

At the end of the meeting, the People´s Deputies included the Bill on Amendments to the Law "On the State Budget of Ukraine for Year 2008 and Amendments to certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine" (re Measures to be taken to Minimize the Consequences of the Global Financial Crisis, Funding of Pensions, Holding of Extraordinary Local Elections) into the agenda.

The Chairman stated that the Bill would be scrutinized at the First Reading at the next plenary meeting on Thursday. Then the plenary meeting was closed.