The Seminar "Activity of a Modern European Parliament: Practice, Experience, Problems concluded its Work at The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine
19 June 2009, 17:31
During the second day of the
seminar, the participants discussed cooperation of the Parliament with the mass
media and support of work of Ukrainian and British parliaments by the
secretariats, summarized the conclusions of the seminar and outlined the
prospects of further cooperation.
Thus, the participants of the seminar discussed peculiarities of work of the parliament members "in the limelight of the cameras", positive and negative aspects of such activity, and the necessity for a parliament member to elaborate a successful strategy of communication with the mass media and establish positive relations with the journalists.
John Grogan, member of the Parliament of the Great Britain, informed about the relations between the journalists and the MPs at the British Parliament. Thus, he underscored that activity of the British Parliament was of more closed nature, than the activity of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Moreover, only the so-called "lobby journalists" with special accreditation cards whose number is less than 200 have a possibility to interview a British MP.
The participants of the seminar also discussed the activity of the secretariats of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the British Parliament.
Valentyn Zaichuk, Secretary General of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariate, informed the British party about the legal principles of its activity, organization of work and structure. V.Zaichuk stressed that it was the activity of the Secretariate that "rendered a possibility for the Parliament to focus on the law-making activity". The Secretary General underscored that before being scrutinized by the parliament members, each Bill underwent a perfect, expert examination in the relevant departments of the Secretariate.
The representatives of the British
delegation informed about the work of the secretariat of the British
Parliament. They underscored that impartiality,
professionalism and nonpolitical attitude were the main requirements for the
employees of the secretariat. As far as the specific features of activity of
the secretariat of the British Parliament are concerned, they include training
of "universal personnel": transition of personnel between different committees
for them to acquire and support professional skills.
Valentyn Zaichuk, Secretary General of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariate, summed up the results of the two-day work of the seminar, in which 115 persons took part, and stated that "the outcome of the meetings was of great use for the participants".