On Anticorruption court
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andriy Parubiy stressed that the law on the Anticorruption court should be approved by the Parliament by May.
The debate seems to consume a whole lot of time and may even take two days for the document out. The Chairman of the Parliament noted that "as of today, the core parliamentary committee has worked out some thousand amendments to the law on anticorruption court, and that they will be about one and a half thousand presumably".
The bill will be submitted to the Parliament for consideration as soon as the Committee completes its work. The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine believes that by May the Parliament would adopt the law.
“It was, it is and it will be one of the main prerogatives for the parliamentary work. Because through this law we are actually about to complete our anti-corruption reform by creating both the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, creating open access to various funds and various resources, introducing e-declarations. So now, our key task is to enable the independent anti-corruption authorities to pursue their cases with the anti-corruption court,” underlined the Chair.
Through agenda holistically
“All parliamentary factions, regardless of political affiliation, are able to unite and make responsible decisions on vital, important issues,” – Andriy Parubiy
During the last plenary week, the Parliament passed twenty-two legislative enactments; seven of them on the second reading, ten resolutions and five bills on the first reading.
“Within this week, despite that there were very important issues, we have adopted twelve laws on the second reading, six laws on the first reading, six resolutions, and one bill was sent for re-reading. That is, twenty-five decisions that have been taken during the week,” said A.Parubiy.
Answering the question on the effectiveness of the holistic, block-by-block approach to consideration of agenda issues, the Chairman of the Parliament of Ukraine Andriy Parubiy noted that “this is one of the important elements of the reform of the Verkhovna Rada”.
The head of the Parliament reminded that key personnel decisions were also adopted this week.
“We have resolved the acutest, key personnel issues that were on the agenda of the session. Yet, we are having the Central Election Commission, but we still expect the end of the security vetting of the candidates. And this is the next staffing issue that will enter the agenda for April-May,” underscored A.Parubiy.
On National security and defence law
The Chairman is in no doubt in April the House shall cast a vote upon the above law on the first reading. A top priority of the paper has been reminded about by A.Parubiy with his follow-up statement that “the document is an all-out instrument which has been penned for years”.
The would-be law has two important functions: reforming the Ukraine’s security and defence sector and bringing it in line with European and NATO standards. “A small Soviet army will never defeat a large Soviet army”. So there is an acute need to stop building up a Soviet army. It is necessary to build a modern army, based on NATO models, capable of responding quickly and effectively to any challenges.
A.Parubiy noted
that "without this law, we actually stop our path to NATO and we cannot
take the next steps; so it is extremely important to hear the opinions of our
partners". He informed that the EU and NATO representatives had already submitted
their corrections and comments to the bill up to the core committee of the
Parliament.
“A recently called and well-manned task force at the core committee has already yielded a stockpile of ‘fruits’ to be taken on the first reading for their follow-up introduction in the law body,” stated A.Parubiy lastly, with his hopes that the committee discussions ‘would not last long’.