06 May 2016, 13:00
Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andrii Parubii has presented the amendments to the Verkhovna Rada Regulations. People's deputies of Ukraine, representatives of mass media organizations and non-government organizations took part in the presentation.
Presenting major provisions of the reform of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Andrii Parubii noted that a joint group formed of representatives of the Ukrainian Parliament and the European Parliament had worked over this project for quite a long period of time. According to him, this group has to determine the mechanisms and stages in reformation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. "This is one of the forms of close cooperation," he said. He also said it was high time to gradually embody all those theoretical findings. "I am confident that the reformation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine remains one of the most important tasks of the whole society, as in compliance with the Constitution, a parliamentary presidential republic is the face of the whole Ukrainian authorities," the Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada said.
Taking in account the fact that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine "has one of the lowest levels of trust in the society," Andrii Parubii drew attention to the fact that "the Ukrainian Parliament has been the platform, where social conflicts were solved both after the Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Dignity."
He said that such level of distrust in the authorities, in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, had been conditioned by the fact that the people expected more effective and rapid actions of the authorities.
The Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada drew attention of representatives of mass media organizations to the major amendments to the Verkhovna Rada Regulations, which lie in the following:
- It is offered to replace two plenary weeks with three plenary weeks a month to give people's deputies more for the decision-making;
- It is offered to increase the amount of time for the parliamentary committees to work on draft laws;
- It is offered to give more time for work with the Ukrainian Government on Mondays: traditional "hour" of questions to the Government is to be replaced with three hours of Government-Parliament discussions;
- On Tuesdays, the Ukrainian Parliament is offered to hold full-day plenary meetings;
- Wednesdays will be given for comprehensive work in the parliamentary committees. Wednesday Committee work will end at 16:00 with meetings of the Council of Committees — new agency suggested within the parliamentary reform;
- Plenary meetings will also take place on Thursdays;
- Fridays will be the days for holding meetings of the Conciliatory Council (earlier held on Mondays).
The offered amendments will be implemented in September when new session of the Ukrainian Parliament will commence.