For the first 100 days, Ukrainian Parliament has managed to conduct 30 plenary meetings and pass 379 decisions. A fruitful cooperation was established between the Parliament, the Cabinet of Ministers, and the President. Thus, MPs of Ukraine have supported a lot of governmental and presidential legislative initiatives. However,the Opposition Block didn't vote on almost a half of all agenda items, emphasizing its oppositional status in such a way. Besides that, non-personal voting remains a topical issue, and only 68 of 423 MPs of Ukraine have visited all plenary sittings. At the same time, there is a need to develop and introduce a standardized system to assess legislative initiatives and plan law-making activities.
In contrast to the Parliament of VII convocation which had started its functioning with ten days of rostrum blocking, current MPs have managed to avoid such acute and continuous confrontations. It should be mentioned that the number of registered bills is 40% higher than the corresponding number that the previous convocation of the Parliament had (VIII convocation – 1,750 bills for the first 100 days; VII convocation – 1,008 bills for the first 100 days). However, there is a problem with quality assessment of such a vast number of bills and no planning system for drafting them.
It should be mentioned that most of bills were introduced by MPs themselves, and 62% of considered bills were supported. There is aclose and efficient cooperation between the Parliament, the Cabinet of Ministers, and the President, speaking from how their legislative initiatives are supported by MPs.Thus, 53 legislative initiatives introduced by the President were 100% considered by the Parliament, and 68% supported. As for governmental initiatives, MPs have considered 63% of those considered for the first 100 days. Such a high percentage shows that Ukrainian Parliament can play a leading and independent role in the change of legislative regulation. Having summarized the bills adopted by the Parliament, we can state that the current convocation is focused on activities of law-enforcement bodies, judicial policy and justice, national security and defense, budget policy.
The analysis of how MPs voted ("for", "against", and "abstained") or didn't participate in the voting shows the certain political strategies of parliamentary parties. On one side, the Opposition Block is trying to affirm its position as the one opposition faction by refusing to vote on agenda items (didn't participate in 45.21% of considerations) and support draft laws and resolutions (only 8.06% of votes given "for"). On the other side, some members of the ruling coalition are not going to take political responsibility for all decisions of the Parliament, particularly theSamopomich Union which supported the draft laws and resolutions in the agenda the least (58.22%).
There are also problems with non-personal voting and attendance on plenary sittings. Only 68 of 423 MPs of Ukraine have visited all 30 plenary meetings in the Parliament. Members of thePeople's Front turned out to be the most disciplined. They have visited 89% of plenary meetings in average. Members of theVolia Narodudeputy group showed the worst attendance of plenary meetings (66%).
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Civil Network OPORA recommends to MPs and the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada:
- To develop and introduce a standardized assessment system to verify the quality of legislative initiatives and plan law-making activities;
- To secure that MPs of Ukraine fully adhere to the the Law of Ukraine on the Rules of Procedure of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine concerning written registration at plenary sittings;
- To secure implementation of the Article 33 (5) of the Law of Ukraine on the Status of MP of Ukraine saying "MPs who fail to fulfill their duties without valid reasons shall be deprived of remuneration for such days by the corresponding committee responsible for ethics of MPs";
- To finish the process of securing the impossibility to violate constitutional requirements concerning personal voting by legislative and technical means.
Full report: Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine: the first 100 days
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