Only 3 Committees of 29 conduct their meetings. Are MPs on vacation?

From 22 to 26 of April, MPs should be working in Committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. However, most of Committees don't conduct their meetings.

According to the agenda of plenary meetings, which is published on the VRU site, plenary meetings are to start on May 4, 2013. Till that time, MPs should be working in Committees, Commissions, factions, and some days in districts. However, this week, only the Committee on Science and Education has a roundtable planned, the Committee on Matters of Pensioners, Veterans and Persons with Disabilities – a meeting, and the Committee on Family Matters, Youth Policy, Sports and Tourism – a meeting in Alushta city (Crimea).

Civil Network OPORA decided to check when other committees are going to hold their meetings. However, secretariats of almost fifteen committees informed, that meetings are not going to be held these days. Despite  MPs should be working in Committees and factions from 22 to 26 of April, as well as on 7, 8, and 10 May, the Committee on State Building and Local Self-Government informed OPORA that the sitting is scheduled for May 15, i.e. a month after the last sitting was held. The Committee on Taxation and Customs Policy informed that meetings are held only during the plenary week. Some other committees, according to the information provided by the secretariat, MPs are preparing to parliamentary hearings and analyzing draft laws.

If the calendar plan of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine provides that MPs should be working in Committees, interested citizens should have a possibility to get their own impression about efficiency of MPs in these activities.

According to the Article 42 of the Law of Ukraine on Committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, meetings and hearings are forms of activities in Committees. Predictability of parliamentary procedures – is one of parliamentary standards. It is also imply that factual activities of MPs shall correspond to declared plans. If the calendar plan of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine provides that MPs should be working in Committees, interested citizens should have a possibility to get their own impression about efficiency of MPs in these activities.

According to the analyst of the Civil Network OPORA Oleksandr Kliuzhev, the absence of public events in Committees during non-plenary period casts doubts on their efficiency. "Moreover, officials of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine have repeatedly emphasized that there is a bulk of urgent draft laws accumulated. Considering that Committees play key role in law-making process, their prolonged "vacation" seems to be quite strange." – stated Oleksandr Kliuzhev.