18 June 2014, 16:30
THE VERKHOVNA RADA OF UKRAINE CONTINUED ITS WORK IN A PLENARY MODE ON WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 2014.
At the beginning of the morning meeting, MPs made their announcements, claims, messages and suggestions.
The main topic of the speeches was the situation in the East of Ukraine. People's deputies claimed "saboteurs and terrorists are aiming to destroy communal infrastructure", they are bombing, blowing up and attacking communal facilities, and thus, citizens of the East of Ukraine are left without power supply, water and public utilities.
They demanded that the government "take care of protecting communal infrastructure of Ukraine's East".
People's deputy Ivan Kyrylenko informed that deputies' faction "Batkivshchyna" upholds the initiative of democratic powers in the Parliament on dissolution.
People's deputy O.Zarubinskyi suggested fix five extremely important things for Parliament's re-elections. In his words, the next Parliament should have 300 deputies instead of 450. He also suggested return to a four-year term of occupying deputy's post, and exclude article 80 from the Constitution.
Speeches also suggested include not less than 20% of women to the next Parliament.
People's deputy P.Rozenko addressed his colleagues with a request to uphold the draft resolution, initiated by the deputies' faction "UDAR", on dissolution of the Verkhovna Rada.
P.Rozenko also asked to "explain on what grounds faction of the Communist Party exists in the Verkhovna Rada".
"We demand to announce dissolution of the communist faction, or to explain why it exists", added P.Rozenko.
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Turchynov instructed the Committee on Rules of Parliamentary Procedure, Ethics and Support to Work of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to immediately examine the issue on the Communist Party faction and submit the draft decision.
After the speeches, MPs started considering the agenda issues.
Chair of the National Bank Stepan Kubiv reported on activity of the bank for the period of March–June, 2014.
He claimed Ukraine is in the middle of the undeclared war, people are dying. "We understand that the situation in Crimea influenced the banking system of Ukraine considerably, it influenced its activity, liquidity and paying capacity of banks", he stressed.
The speaker stated that "Oshchadbank", which has nearly 300 branches, and "Pryvatbank", which has over 330 branches, together with the government had ensured all social payments, pensions, scholarships, and maximum issuance of deposits until their activity was terminated by Russian terrorists who seized territorial branch of the National Bank of Ukraine.
S.Kubiv claimed that as soon as the situation in Crimea was beginning to settle – "there was an outburst in the East". "I am talking about Donetsk and Luhansk. This means assets of over 100 billion, this means a deposit basis and liabilities on current accounts in the amount of over 76 billion, and this means an impossibility to conduct bank transactions", he stressed.
The Chair of the National Bank informed that a day before yesterday the Oblast territorial department of the National Bank in Donetsk was seized. "By decision of the President and the government all necessary measures were taken, and yesterday the Accounting Chamber, 11 banks of legal entities, 10 balance sheet branches, and 1576 branches were transferred to Kyiv", he explained.
The speaker informed that the National Bank initiated stress-testing of banks. S.Kubiv also reported on creating the committee at the Bank's Council which had considered complicated issues on current situation and made decision on necessary measures.
The Chair of the National Bank claimed the National Bank management adopted several decisions on making its activity transparent. S.Kubiv informed about creating the Public Council at the National Bank, decisions of which will be aimed at making activity of the National Bank more open and transparent.
The speaker
reported on the elaborated strategy of developing the banking sector till 2020.
This document is now being discussed with Association of Ukrainian Banks, independent
association, and
Kyiv Bank
Union.
Finishing the speech, S.Kubiv commented on the issue of strategy of the National Bank and on the work with international financial institutions and the International Monetary Fund.
The people’s deputies went down to consideration of the agenda items.
In particular, they did not uphold the proposal of the Chairman to include into the agenda the draft law on amendments to article 28 of the Law “On Military Duty and Military service” (re categories of reserve and limit of age for staying in reserve), registered under No. 4844.
Parliamentarians adopted as a basis the draft law on amendments to several legislative acts of Ukraine re preventing workers' occupational disease (Reg. No. 2323).
The Verkhovna Rada adopted the draft Resolution "On holding parliamentary hearings entitled "Defence capacity of Ukraine in the XXI century: challenges, threats and ways of their overcoming" (Reg. No.4027a). The resolution stipulates holding of hearings in July 2014.
The people’s deputies included into the agenda and adopted as a basis the draft law on amendments to article 28 of the Law “On Military Duty and Military service” (re categories of reserve and limit of age for staying in reserve), registered under No. 4844.
The people’s deputy Oleh Tiahnybok drew attention to the fact that at the end of the agenda there are three draft resolutions regarding address of the Ukrainian Parliament to different international structures, particularly, the UN General Assembly, the UN Security Council, PACE and the Council of Europe regarding exclusion of Russia from these international organizations, as well as investigating facts of military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, which led to mass violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
O.Tiahnybok suggested scrutinize these bills earlier. He reported on the draft resolution on the Address of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to the General Assembly of the United Nations and the United Nations Security Council (Reg. No.4520).
The Chairman put the draft resolution to signal voting.
Following the results of voting (187 votes in favor), it was mandated to work on the draft resolution.
The people’s deputies considered several bills in the first reading.
The draft law on amendments to several legislative acts of Ukraine (re protection of biodiversity), registered under No. 3672, was reported by the Chairman of the subcommittee of the Committee on Environmental Policy, Nature Resources Utilization and Elimination of the Consequences of Chornobyl Catastrophe Andrii Tiahnybok.
The bill was elaborated in order to strengthen measures for protection of biodiversity and refine protection of objects from the Red Book of Ukraine; preserve territories of the natural-reserved fund; improve protection of natural habitats of biodiversity objects; and bring laws of Ukraine in line with the provisions of the international environmental law, etc,
A.Tiahnybok reported the decision of the Committee recommend the Verkhovna Rada adopt the bill as a basis.
The people’s deputies upheld the bill in the first reading by 245 votes.
Another bill on amendments to several legislative acts of Ukraine regarding wildlife protection (Reg. No. 4004) was reported by the people’s deputy Mykola Tomenko.
The Verkhovna Rada adopted the bill as a basis by 245 votes.
The draft law on amendments to the Law "On mandatory state pension insurance" re stimulating people with disabilities to work (Reg. No.1106) was reported by the Chair of the Committee on Matters of Pensioners, Veterans and Persons with Disabilities Valerii Sushkevych.
Valerii Sushkevych reported the decision of the Committee to recommend the Parliament adopt the bill as a basis.
The bill was adopted as a basis by 262 votes.
Valerii Sushkevych presented one more bill on amendments to several legislative acts of Ukraine re protection of rights of the disabled (Reg. No. 3640).
The bill was adopted as a basis and in entirety by 227 votes.
The people’s deputies considered several draft resolutions.
The draft resolution on implementation of the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in the case No. 21722/11 “Oleksandr Volkov against Ukraine” of January 9, 2013, registered under No. 4446, was reported by the people’s deputy Serhii Vlasenko.
Oleksandr Turchynov put the draft resolution to signal voting. Following the results of voting (157 votes in favor), the decision was taken to decide on the resolution during the next meeting.
Parliamentarians scrutinized and adopted the draft resolution on imposing a moratorium on closure of general educational establishments of state and municipal form of ownership (Reg. No. 2922) by 245 votes.
The Verkhovna Rada adopted the draft resolution on recommendations to parliamentary hearings on the state of youth in Ukraine entitled “On youth participation in social life: economic activity” (Reg. No.4928).
Following the results of voting, the draft resolutions registered under No. 3308 and No.2252a were not adopted.
The people’s deputies upheld the draft resolution on celebrating 100th anniversary of establishing Poltava V.H. Korolenko State Pedagogical University (Reg. No. 4086).
At the end of the meeting, parliamentarians considered one more draft resolution on celebrating a memorable date – the 700th anniversary of Madrasah Khan Uzbek Mosque (Reg. No.4095).
The decision on this draft resolution will be taken during the next plenary meetings.
Oleksandr Turchynov adjourned morning plenary session.
Next plenary session of the Verkhovna Rada will be held on Thursday, June 19.