27 November 2015, 15:21
The Parliament of the eighth convocation adopted a number of important decisions during its first year aimed at legislative support of reforms. The Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Volodymyr Groysman, told it during a press conference on Friday.
Speaking about the results of work of the eighth convocation of Parliament, Groysman said that the events that took place in Parliament can be assessed in different ways. "There is a lot of criticism, and we need to be rather self-critical about the current situation, said the Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada. But if we talk about specific results, I have singled out seven basic things that we still managed to do."
Among them, Groysman called as improvement of our country’s defense in terms of law. "The decisions taken by the Parliament allowed creating a reliable Ukrainian army and begin to address the issues of defense this year," he stressed.
Among the achievements of the current Parliament, its supervisor called the approval of a set of "visa free" draft laws. "This is the issue of access to our great European family," he said.
Groysman noted that the Verkhovna Rada passed resolutions to stabilize the financial situation in the country.
Parliament Speaker also mentioned a crucial adoption of all necessary regulations to strengthen the fight against corruption, which he called "a serious challenge for society." "But we need to realize that the resolutions must be implemented," he said, adding that the formation of anti-corruption institutions, disclosure of officials’ fortune in the next year will allow combating this shameful phenomenon successfully.
"There are many issues related to the reform of the power block, restoration of the quality of judicial system," said Groysman.
The Parliament Speaker noted the success of reforms related to decentralization of power in terms of transfer of finance and authority locally. "The system of transparent offices and service centers will get more and more support of people because it will be convenient to receive the services required for people," he stressed.
In the economic sphere, said Groysman, the Parliament legislatively ensures the processes of "a large-scale deregulation." He praised the results of implementation of the thematic approach to the issues on the agenda. "Now we are facing the challenge of adopting a new tax system, which can also become a good tool for recovery of the Ukrainian economy power ," told the head of the Parliament.
The seventh priority of the Parliament, according to Groysman, is the issue of media democratization.
The Parliament Speaker stressed that the Parliament never "failed the important draft laws."
"It is important that we first began work inclusively at legislative initiatives. Many legislative initiatives are supported by civil society and expert community, and in many cases the expert community is the co-author or author of certain laws submitted by the people’s deputies, he said. For the first time, civil society influences on legislative initiatives."
However, Groysman said that this is not enough, and expressed a hope that "the plan for a large-scale modernization and reform of the Ukrainian parliament will attract the expert community and civil society for working out the solutions and provision of expert assessments to a greater extent."
Meanwhile the Head of the Parliament expressed his confidence that the shortcomings in the work of a single legislative body, in particular the discipline of attendance of the plenary sessions and committee meetings, non-participation in voting, obscene behavior of people’s deputies in certain cases are "challenges that we have to overcome" through transparency and publicity, particularly through the internal Parliamentary reform, technological upgrading, transformation of the Parliament Staff into a modern service, which is now being implemented through the EP Mission for needs assessment.
"I think in January we will complete roadmap for reform, present it to the Ukrainian Parliament and since then, I believe, that the revival of Ukrainian parliamentarianism will start in line with the best European traditions; the institutional capacity will begin to recover from the walls of the Ukrainian Parliament," he said.