The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Volodymyr Rybak said this during the meeting with the leaders of the diplomatic missions of the EU and the US member states that were accredited in Kyiv.

Volodymyr Rybak explained diplomats the situation in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. “Since you represent interests of states, where the parliaments are the most important branch of state power and one of the main fundamentals of democracy, it seems to me that recent events in the Ukrainian Parliament should have seriously confused you,” he said.

The Ukrainian Parliament, said the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, “is experiencing a period of crisis from the point of view of legislative effectiveness”. “From the time the new composition of the Verkhovna Rada was elected, only 12 documents out of 958 bills were adopted in entirety,” he noted. “Package of bills required for signing the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, remains unsigned,” he added.

Volodymyr Rybak said that the Parliament of the seventh convocation “practically becomes ineffective due to the obstruction tactics, which the minority has passed into service as a main method of inter-parliamentary political fighting”. “The so-called “tribune blocking” would be more rightly named “siege to surrender” the majority,” he noted. According to Volodymyr Rybak, 17 of 28 plenary meetings of the second session of the Verkhovna Rada of the seventh convocation have been blocked. “There were different reason – you know them, but there was only one result – absolute plenary inactivity of the Parliament,” he said.

“However sad it is, the parliament of the new convocation, especially some of its factions and political forces, are in thrall to destructive element of open disregard to the law and legal nihilism to the laws which we, ourselves, have adopted,” noted Volodymyr Rybak. “Open disrespect for the law and low legal discipline is an extremely dangerous tendency in the Parliament. This is a bomb of deferred action under the Ukrainian parliamentarianism”.

“In connection with establishing the working group of the Parliament on refinement of urgent bills pertaining to the Euro-integrational prospects of Ukraine, consideration of the draft law on amendments to the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes of Ukraine, as well as the Law on amendments to several legislative acts of Ukraine re introduction of criminal and legal measures in relation to legal persons was postponed.

However, the Law on amendments to several legislative acts of Ukraine re refinement of institutional system for protection of personal data was adopted as a basis,” he said.

“I believe that that the Parliament has taken the decision not only on a number of important internal issues, but has also taken a real step towards accelerating European integration of Ukrainian society. Thus, please, compare the results of yesterday’s day with the efficiency coefficient of the Parliament for the past five months, mentioned at the beginning of our conversation,” summed Volodymyr Rybak.

The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine responded also to the question of diplomatic missions leaders.

 

Press Service of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine