OPORA REPORTING. VERKHOVNA RADA OF UKRAINE: 1 YEAR OF VIII CONVOCATION

On 27 November 2015, it is a year since the VIII convocation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine started functioning. VIII convocation of the Verkhovna Rada worked more efficient that the previous one, as long as it had to make fast radical reforms while country is under military aggression. From 27 November 2014 to 27 November 2015, Ukrainian Parliament had 89 plenary days, while the previous convocation of the Parliament had 78 plenary days over the same period. The current Parliament has registered over 4780 draft laws and resolutions over the year, and exceeding the quantity of registered bills by the previous convocation of the Parliament (4343).

During the first year, the Parliament of VIII convocation has managed to consider one third (28%) of all registered draft laws and resolutions (1344). 765 legislative initiatives were adopted – 16% of the total number of registered and 57% of considered. 597 (78%) of 765 adopted bills were initiated by MPs, 110 (14%) by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and 58 (8%) by the President. Taking into consideration the correlation between a number of bills initiated by each legal subject of legislative initiative and the number of successfully adopted draft legislative acts, the President is the most productive in law-making. Thus, 85% of legislative initiatives introduced by the President (58 of 68) were supported and became laws.

If we take into consideration the number of members in factions or groups of MPs and calculate the average number of bills per member, the AUU Batkivshchyna has the highest number of bills per member (46). Thus, despite the Petro Poroshenko Bloc co-drafted the largest number of bills, the AUU Batkivshchyna had the heaviest load in this aspect of parliamentary activities.

During the first year of Parliamentary activities, the following four VRU committees were the most loaded with development of bills: Committee on Taxation and Customs Policy, Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government, Committee on Legislative Support of Law Enforcement, Committee on Judicial Policy and Justice. At the same time, Committee for Informatization and Communications, Committee on European Integration (43 bills), and Committee on Preventing and Combating Corruption (48 bills) were the least loaded with work related to consideration and improvement of bills.

If we take averages of attendance at plenary sittings, the People's Front and Samopomich Union turned out to be the most disciplined (87% and 85% attendance respectively). Members of the Opposition Bloc and the Revival Party group of MPs showed the worst attendance at plenary meetings (68% and 67% respectively). Only 9 MPs of Ukraine attended all plenary sittings without an exception. Four of them are majoritarian MPs (I. Huz, V. Razvadovskyi, I. Artiushenko, A. Iliuk). Other MPs represent different political parties: Olena Boiko (People's Front), Ruslan Kniazevych (PPB 'Solidarity'), Nataliia Novak (PPB 'Solidarity'), Mykola Tomenko (PPB 'Solidarity') and non-faction MP Andrii Parubii.

Having compared parliamentary activeness of majoritarian MPs and MPs elected by party lists, we discovered that the latter have better attendance percentage (79% - party list MPs and 76.5% - majoritarian) and give more speeches in the session hall: 73% of speeches were given by party list MPs and only 27% by MPs elected in single-member districts. Besides that, majoritarian MPs submitted less bills, but more parliamentary inquiries than party list MPs (64% of the total number).

Analysis of gender ratio for parliamentary activeness shows that women are more active - they draft more bills and give more speeches than men. For example, one woman MP has average number of 46 bills and 24 speeches, while man MP has 30 bills and 17 speeches. However, women MPs have prepared less parliamentary inquiries than men. Thus, the average for one woman MP – 10.5 inquiries and for a man MP – 11.

LAW-MAKING ACTIVITIES IN THE VERKHOVNA RADA OF UKRAINE

According to the Constitution of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada is the only law-making body. The Parliament is mostly responsible for adoption of new laws, while legislative initiatives may be submitted by the President of Ukraine, MPs of Ukraine, and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

President, Government, and MPs of Ukraine of VIII convocation have prepared during the first year of parliamentary activities 4,780 legislative initiatives. 61% of them are draft laws and 39% – draft resolutions.

The absolute majority (91.5%) of all legislative initiatives were introduced by MPs of Ukraine. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine prepared 7.1% draft legislative acts, and the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko – 1.4%.

The Parliament of VIII convocation has registered more bills than the previous convocation of the Parliament for the first 100 days. MPs of VII convocation had registered 3,111 bills in the first year, what is 34 % less than MPs of the current convocation have registered.

As for subjects of registered legislative initiatives (551), most of them belong to the competence of the Committee on Taxation and Customs Policy. 425 legislative initiatives concern state building, regional policy and local self-government, 413 – legislative support of law-enforcement, and 403 – legal policy and justice. Committee for Informatization and Communications had the smallest number of law initiatives to consider (23).

Thus, the following four VRU committees were the most loaded with development of bills during the first year of Parliamentary activities: Committee on Taxation and Customs Policy, Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government, Committee on Legislative Support of Law Enforcement, Committee on Judicial Policy and Justice. At the same time, Committee for Informatization and Communications, Committee on European Integration (43 bills), and Committee on Preventing and Combating Corruption (48 bills) were the least loaded with work related to consideration and improvement of bills.

CONSIDERATION OF LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVES IN THE VERKHOVNA RADA OF VIII CONVOCATION

During these 2 session, the Parliament of VIII convocation has managed to consider 28% (1,344 of 4,745) of all registered draft laws and resolutions.

765 legislative initiatives were adopted – 16% of the total number of registered and 57% of considered. 597 (78%) of 765 adopted bills were initiated by MPs, 110 (14%) by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and 58 (8%) by the President.

However, taking into consideration the correlation between a number of bills initiated by each legal subject of legislative initiative and the number of successfully adopted draft legislative acts, the President is the most productive in law-making. Thus, 85% of legislative initiatives introduced by the President (58 of 68) were supported and became laws. Law-making efficiency of the Government is smaller – 33% (110 of 337). As for MPs, only 14% of introduced legislative initiatives were supported and became laws.

Most of the decisions taken by the Parliament were under authority of the Committee on Taxation and Customs Policy (65 approved initiatives), Committee on Legislative Support of Law Enforcement (63 approved initiatives), Committee on National Security and Defense (57 approved initiatives), and Committee on Judicial Policy and Justice (53 approved initiatives). The smallest number of approved initiatives belonged to the authority of the Committee for Informatization and Communications (1) and Committee on Transport (3).

Efficiency of parliamentary committees

ACTIVITIES OF MPs AND DEPUTY FACTIONS

Civil Network OPORA has analyzed activities of MPs and deputy factions on the basis of the following indicators: law-making, parliamentary inquiries and speeches on plenary sittings of the Parliament.

Members of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc have submitted the largest number of bills to the Parliament as authors or co-authors. Thus, representatives of this faction have participated in the preparation of 1989 (31.13%) bills. Members of the People's Front have prepared 1,627 (25.47%) as authors or co-authors. However, such high numbers are quite expected if we talk about the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and People's Front, taking into consideration their large membership. 609 (9.53%) of bills were drafted or co-drafted by members of the Radical Party of Oleh Liashko, 1174 (13.79%) – AUU Batkivshchyna, 380 (6%) – Opposition Bloc, 419 (5,95%) – Samopomich. Members of the Economic Development and the Revival groups of MPs have participated in the preparation of 237 3.71% and 247 3.87% bills respectively.

However, if we take into consideration the number of members in factions or groups of MPs and calculate the average number of bills per member, the activeness indicators will be different. For example, the AUU Batkivshchyna has the highest number of bills per member (46). The corresponding average number of bills per member in the Radical Party of Oleh Liashko – 29 bills, the People's Front - 20, Petro Poroshenko Bloc – 14, the Samopomich – 16, the Volia Narodu group of MPs – 12, Opposition Bloc and Revival group – 9 and 11 respectively. Thus, despite the Petro Poroshenko Bloc has participated in development of the largest number of bills, the AUU Batkivshchyna had the heaviest load in this aspect of parliamentary activities.

However, the number of bills drafted by the certain MPs cannot be a single criterion of their efficiency. The assessment of law-making activities should be definitely based on the quality of approved initiatives and propositions, but not the quantity. Nonetheless, bills introduced by MPs can be used to track their political and professional direction, as well as consistency of their positions. Since the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of VIII convocation has entered into operation, the following MPs participated in development of the largest number of draft laws and resolutions: Serhii Vlasenko (336), Olena Ledovskykh (280), Olena Boiko (275), Oleksii Honcharenko (242). However, it should be mentioned that these MPs participated in the drafting of so many draft laws and resolutions only because they are members of the Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government which is responsible for the preparation of Parliament's resolutions on announcement of early local elections. At the same time, the following MPs have registered the highest number of meaningful draft laws:Oleh Liashko (155), Viktor Halasiuk and Ruslan Kniazevych (144 each), Andrii Kozhemiakin (137), Yurii Levchenko (135), Liudmyla Denysova (131) and Mykhailo Holovko (128).

According to OPORA's calculations, MP Oleh Liashko, who took the floor 361 times, was the most active in consideration of agenda items on plenary meetings of the Parliament during two sessions of its activities. The other most active speakers of the current convocation: Yurii Lutsenko (Petro Poroshenko Bloc, 233 speeches), Oleh Bereziuk (Samopomich, 167 speeches), Viktor Halasiuk (Radical Party of Oleh Liashko, 154 speeches), and Andrii Kozhemiakin (AUU Batkivshchyna, 125 speeches). Viktoriia Siumar became the most active member of the People's Front faction (99 speeches), Opposition Bloc – Oleksandr Dolzhenov (97 speeches), Revival group – Oleh Kulinich (32 speeches), Volia Narodu – Volodymyr Lytvyn (31 speeches). As for non-faction MPs, Yurii Levchenko was the most active on plenary sittings (179 speeches).

As for the average number of speeches per member, the most active faction was the AUU Batkivshchyna and Radical Party of Oleh Liashko (43 speeches per member in average), and Samopomich (26 speeches per member in average). The averages for the other parties are the following: People's Front – 15 speeches per member; Opposition Bloc – 12 speeches; Petro Poroshenko Bloc – 9 speeches; Revival group – 8 speeches; the Volia Narodu – 5 speeches, non-faction MPs – 24 speeches.

One of the most important instruments an MP has is a parliamentary inquiry. An MP of Ukraine has the right to make an inquiry to the President of Ukraine, bodies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, officials of other state authorities and local self-government bodies, directors of enterprises, institutions and organizations and receive an official answer concerning issues in their authority.

MPs of Ukraine have sent nearly 4,576 inquiries to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for the first year of its activities. 1,614 of them were prepared by members of Petro Poroshenko Bloc, 1,225 by non-faction MPs, and 554 by Samopomich. Opposition Bloc, Revival group, Radical Party of Oleh Liashko, AUU Batkivshchyna and Volia Narodu group have prepared 238, 192, 160, 157, and 148 inquiries respectively. As for inquiries sent by MPs, this instrument was the most often used by Andrii Illienko (AUU Svoboda) who has sent 146 inquiries, Yakiv Bezbakh (non-faction) – 138 inquiries; and Ruslan Solvar (PPB) – 127 inquiries.

JOINT VOTINGS OF FACTIONS

OPORA has also analyzed how factions voted jointly and which influence the certain political parties have on voting results. Having studied the official voting results, we determined which factions have successfully the biggest number of political compromises during the voting for legislative initiatives. Joint vote is considered successful, if more than a half of MPs affiliated to a certain faction participated in the voting for draft law or resolution. Thus, size of the faction itself doesn't influence the calculation.

The People's Front has the strongest political partnership in the Parliament with Petro Poroshenko Bloc and the Radical Party of Oleh Liashko – they have voted together for 94% and 83% initiatives respectively; Petro Poroshenko Bloc and Radical Party of Oleh Liashko are on the second place – 81%; AUU Batkivshchyna with People's Front and Petro Poroshenko Bloc voted together for 68% of legislative initiatives. Then, according to the joint voting ratings, Samopomich Union voted together with Petro Poroshenko Bloc and People's Front for 67% and 66% of bills respectively.

Opposition Bloc has rarely jointly voted with other factions – in fewer than 3% of cases. Volia Narodu group of MPs has similar result – 6%.

DISCIPLINE OF MPs OF UKRAINE

Before opening of every plenary session, Members of Parliament shall be registered in person by demonstration of a personal parliamentary ID card and personally confirm their presence with their signatures (Law of Ukraine on the Rules of Procedure of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine). Electronic registration happens in the session hall of the Verkhovna Rada through an electronic system and parliamentary ID card. Payroll is carried out on the basis of written registration data.

According to the written registration data, the Parliament has held 116 plenary sittings, and only 9 MPs attended all plenary sitting without an exception in the first year, and four of them are majoritarian MPs (I. Huz, V. Razvadovskyi, I. Artiushenko, A. Iliuk). Other MPs represent different political parties: Olena Boiko (People's Front), Ruslan Kniazevych (PPB 'Solidarity'), Nataliia Novak (PPB 'Solidarity'), Mykola Tomenko (PPB 'Solidarity') and non-faction MP Andrii Parubii. The following MPs have the lowest attendance at plenary sessions: Andrii Biletskyi (5%), Dmytro Yarosh (6%), Yaroslav Moskalenko (19%), Mykhailo Dobkin and Andrii Denysenko (22% each), Viacheslav Bohuslaiev (27%), and Volodymyr Zubyk (29%). Member of the AUU Batkivshchyna faction Nadiia Savchenko didn't attend any plenary sittings, as long as she is illegally detained in pretrial detention center in the Russian Federation now.

If we take averages of attendance at plenary sittings, the People's Front and Samopomich Union turned out to be the most disciplined (87% and 85% attendance respectively). Members of the Opposition Bloc and the Revival Party group of MPs showed the worst attendance at plenary meetings (68% and 67% respectively)

ACTIVENESS OF MAJORITARIAN MPs IN THE PARLIAMENT

Having compared parliamentary activeness of majoritarian MPs and MPs elected by party lists, we discovered that the latter give more speeches in the session hall: 73% of speeches were given by so-called "party list MPs" and only 27% by MPs elected in single-member districts. For example, 5 majoritarian MPs representing Zakarpattia oblast  gave only 8 speeches over the year (Robert Horvat – 6 speeches, Viktor Baloha and Mykhailo Lano – 1 speech each, Pavlo and Ivan Balohas, as well as Vasyl Petiovka didn't give any speeches). Majoritarian MPs representing Mykolaiv oblast gave only 6 speeches. 13 majoritarian MPs in Kyiv gave 434 speeches (33 speeches per an MP in average), what is 21% of all speeches given by MPs elected in majoritarian districts. 4 majoritarian MPs from Chernivtsi oblast took the second place by the average number of speeches per an MP (32).

Besides that, the total number of bills submitted by majoritarian MPs is smaller than the number of bills submitted by party list MPs. Thus, majoritarian MPs drafted or co-drafted only 38.9% of bills, while party list MPs have much bigger percentage. MPs elected in Rivne oblast have the highest average number of registered bills per person – 50. As for MPs elected in Luhansk oblast, their average number is only 12.

However, almost 64 % of parliamentary inquiries were filed by majoritarian MPs, what is not surprising, as long as this instrument can be quite efficient in regard to local issues.

RECOMMENDATIONS

To the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, MPs of Ukraine

• Taking into consideration a large number of registered bills, 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;
• Minimize systematic violations of the Rules of Procedure of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, particularly the voting procedure;
• 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;