The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Dmytro Razumkov and the First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk met with a delegation of the European Parliament headed by Patrick Cox (President of the European Parliament in 2002-2004). The participants of the meeting discussed the prospects of further reform of the Ukrainian parliament and its transformation into an effective institution.
Dmytro Razumkov expressed his gratitude to the European Parliament for its support on the way of reforming the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada is convinced that many initiatives of the European Parliament's Needs Assessment Mission to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, then headed by Pat Cox, have today a chance to be implemented.
Dmytro Razumkov noted that consideration of bills aimed at reforming the parliament would be triggered right after consideration of 63 legislative initiatives recognized by the President of Ukraine as exigent.
The speaker expressed gratitude to Pat Cox for his support of Ukraine in carrying out reforms and his willingness to help implement best European practices to reshape the Ukrainian parliament.
“I want the parliament of the ninth convocation to be the most successful in the history of Ukraine. And we have today a chance for this,” Dmytro Razumkov emphasized.
The First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk stressed the importance of offering, together with the European partners, a glass-clear “road map” - a road map that would, on the one hand, ensure the rights of members of parliament and, on the other hand, would not allow them to misemploy the rights, not turning into a process for the sake of process at that.
He announced the start of a large working group to be gathered for making over the Verkhovna Rada’s regulations immediately after considering the above presidential initiatives.
Pat Cox congratulated Dmytro Razumkov on his election as Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada and wished him good luck. He recalled that there had been signed a cooperation memorandum between the European Parliament and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. To enhance collaboration between the institutions, Pat Cox suggested renewing the said memorandum.
Pat Cox assured the Ukrainian party of active support to Ukraine’s reforms by the European Parliament and made it clear that it is our country, our parliament and our own responsibility.