23 October 2009, 13:26
At the Friday´s briefing at the Parliament, Mykola Tomenko, Vice-Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, briefed on the results of the plenary week after the blocking. He stated: "We held 6 plenary meetings during 4 days, scrutinized 77 issues, adopting 19 Laws (including the Laws on Ratification) in entirety, 11 Laws at the First Reading and 16 Resolutions".
M.Tomenko made a number of general conclusions concerning the results of the plenary week. "Firstly, everyone, including the opposition, has understood that blocking is wrong and work is right", - he stated.
"Secondly, potential candidates for presidency keep missing the plenary meetings", - stressed M.Tomenko.
Thirdly, not everyone is satisfied with the work of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. At present, the situation with Our Ukraine-People´s Self-Defence Faction is still undecided. The leader of the President´s Secretariat stated that they concluded collection of signatures to re-elect the head of the Faction.
"As far as the resolutions adopted in the plenary week are concerned, the BYuT Faction acted with tolerance and made compromises to settle certain matters. We voted for the bills of importance irregardless of the Faction they were submitted by. It was necessary to settle certain issues", - stated the Vice-Chairman. He cited an example of the Bill on continuation of the right of the individuals to sell agricultural produce till 2015, stressing that the BYuT voted not for the governmental bill, but for the one submitted by the opposition, "as it was the essence, not the authors of the Bills that mattered".
The Vice-Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine regretted that the issue concerning abolition of the deputies´ immunity had not been settled by means of voting for the bill submitted by the BYuT Faction.
The Vice-Chairman also expects that the matter concerning the Law on Presidential Elections and the budget discussion will be settled at the parliament the next week.