At the start of today’s Conciliation Board sitting, the Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andriy Parubiy congratulated those present on upcoming new political season.
The politician then selected the issues of high priority to be considered during the ninth session of the Ukrainian Parliament of VIII convocation.
National security
The recently adopted national security law was said to be the trigger for further implementing and taking up cognate legislative acts – the laws on security service, intelligence agencies (reconnaissance elements), government’s defence order, as well as launching a special parliamentary committee tasked to conduct oversight over the whole security sector, intelligence bodies and the like.
The Speaker also said he had had an ample talk with Viktoriia Siumar, the head of the Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information Policy, about drawing up wider proposals in the sphere of informational security since – “once we face a failure in protecting our internal informational space, it will be hard to talk about safeguarding against an external aggression”.
State budget
The Speaker emphasized the importance that the document be submitted to the Parliament in time "so that we can pass through the budget debate in the Parliament prior to its adoption, just like yester-year".
Election process
“We are on the brink of a big election year. It’s important that we finalize on the Central Election Commission’s bench until the fall ends, as well as on the election code, I’d remind,” said the Chairman. He then also added “the code issue might take a plenary fortnight”.
Law on language
The head of the Parliament expressed his conviction that the law on language should be considered during this session. “Since the Constitutional Court of Ukraine killed the so called ‘Koliesnichenko-Kivalov Law’, there has been the legal vacuum on the issue that we need to fill up,” said A.Parubiy, having added there had been five laws on language filed so far; and “we need to choose one agreed upon”.
Euro-integration and EU association
Among the session priorities named also were the laws needful for furtherance of the Euro-integration process and implementation of the European Union-Ukraine Association Agreement.
Economic laws
A whole cluster of economic laws shall be reviewed within the session to come. “We have already drafted up an all-round plan for the session. And now we are to do the same in close concert with our committees and the government,” smiled the Chairman.
Changes to Constitution
Speaking about amendments to the Constitution, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada reminded that the Constitutional Court had issued its opinion about two bills on parliamentary immunity - therefore it is necessary to consider these bills and make decisions.
Joining EU and NATO
Once EU and NATO accession be constitutionally enacted – he, as the parliament’s speaker, will be furthering this initiative in a very active way in order to make these key foreign policy decisions to be final and irrevocable.
Parliamentary reforms
According to A.Parubiy, one of the main activities of the Verkhovna Rada in this session will be reforming the Parliament, with regard, in particular, to the number of committees and their distribution through the agency of the D'Hondt method, and strengthening of the supervisory responsibility of the supreme legislative body of the country.