On Thursday, Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andrii Parubii met with the members of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission).
Andrii Parubii thanked the guests for "their clear support:" "We do highly appreciate the contribution of the Venice Commission in the issues touching Ukraine, in the issues touching the protection of the territorial integrity of our country. It is very important for us. The support of the European institutions is very important for us."
The Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada noted that Ukraine is currently facing "hard times: it learns how to protect its territorial integrity from the military invasion, Russian occupation and at the same time, how to implement reforms almost in all fields of our state's life." "It is complicated as we know how our neighbors from the Eastern European countries passed through such reforms," he said.
Parubii informed about the key prerogatives in reforms. He said that at the present day the most important task is to finalize the judicial reform, without which it will be impossible to close all the corruption cases. He reminded that the Verkhovna Rada had already approved the amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine touching the judicial reform in first reading. "Now altogether we are working on the preparation of the law for second reading. Over certain amount of time a group formed of representatives of the Ukrainian Parliament, Presidential Administration and the Ukrainian Government have elaborated the law "On judicial system and status of judges," which will allow us to enter the home stretch of the judicial reform," the Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada said.
Andrii Parubii also said: "Today the elaboration of this draft law is in fact being finalized and tomorrow it will publicly presented. It will allow us to vote for the constitutional amendments in second reading." He added that respective "discussion is very tense, almost all the factions are taking part in it." "At the end we hope for success. We have grounds to hope that this [the constitutional amendments] will be voted the next [plenary] week or at least during current session," Parubii said.
Among other priorities in activity of the Ukrainian Parliament, Andrii Parubii mentioned the necessity for amendments to the election legislation. "A workgroup has already been established to work on this issue. This path is going to be not less simple than the path of the judicial reform," he noted. "We hope to change the system, make it the as effective as possible. It should be adapted to the current lay of the land," the Chairperson of the Ukrainian Parliament said.
Parubii informed that "he is the author and proponent of the election system with open lists by regional representations." He did not rule out difficulties in discussions touching this issue however, at the same time, he said: "I am fully optimistic as Ukraine has managed to show considerable progress on this path." "Over the last two years we have managed to hold presidential election, Verkhovna Rada election, and local election. These local elections were conducted in compliance with the new, updated law. The world community declared the results of those elections democratic, open and transparent," the Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada concluded.
Andrii Parubii told the members of the European Commission for Democracy through Law about the parliamentary reform elaborated along with the Needs Assessment Mission of the European Parliament headed by Pat Cox. He also informed about crucial provisions of the draft law on amendments to the Verkhovna Rada Regulations. The amendments aim to make the Regulations more effective and transparent.