Over three and a half years of their activities, MPs in the Verkhovna Rada of VIII convocation spoke 5 million 524 thousand 967 times on the votings. At the same time, each Ukrainian MP missed each fifth voting in average, didn't participate in one third of votings, and voted “for” on every two of five votings, voted “against” only once in a hundred of times, and “refrained” in 7% of votings.
According to OPORA's calculations, the following MPs visited less than 10% of votings in the Parliament: non-faction MPs Serhii Kliuiev – 1.6% of votings, Dmytro Yarosh – 2.7%, Andrii Biletskyi – 6.4% and Kostiantyn Zhevaho – 8.2%, member of the Volia Narodu group of MPs Viacheslav Bohuslaiev – 7.5% and representative of the Opposition Bloc Yukhym Zviahilskyi – 6.9% The most responsible MPs are the following: Ivan Sporysh, Andrii Parubii, Serhii Melnyk, Mykola Velychkovych, Taras Yuryk ta Mykhailo Bondar. These MPs have attended almost 100% of votings.
According to OPORA's Project Director under the RADA program Anatolii Bondarchuk, Ukrainian MPs had registered 6,613 draft laws from November 2014 to May 2018, but adopted only 808 of them. “The President and Government proved to be more efficient than MPs in this regard. Thus, 76% of all draft laws initiated by the President were eventually adopted. Almost a third (29%) of draft laws, introduced by the Government, received the votes of parliamentary majority. To compare, only 12% of draft laws registered by MPs came into force. We should mention that the highest efficiency of current convocation of parliament was recorded in 2015, when the government coalition comprised five parliamentary factions. During this period, MPs adopted 340 draft laws. In 2016, the Parliament successfully adopted 212 draft laws, while in 2017 – only 174 draft laws. As of the end of May 2018, MPs has adopted 64 draft laws since the start of the year”, - he told.
“So many registered draft laws triggers so-called “legislative tsunami”. Parliament is swamped with work on enormous number of draft laws and, therefore, MPs can’t consider them properly. Under such circumstances, only one in eight registered draft laws has good chances of becoming a law. For the most part, MPs register draft laws independently (40% of the total number). Thus, OPORA emphasizes the expediency of revising the method (procedure) for registering the draft laws individually. For example, to adopt a legal provision stipulating that draft laws can be submitted for registration only by parliamentary factions or deputy groups”, - noticed Anatolii Bondarchuk.
Every sixth draft law (1,049), registered in parliament, is still awaiting consideration in the session hall. 1,353 draft laws were excluded from consideration. Slightly more than 10% of all draft laws (664) were rejected in parliament. Furthermore, every twentieth draft law (315) was sent back for revision. Meanwhile, only 2% of all registered draft laws (118) are being finalized or await the second reading. However, consideration in the main committee proved to be one of the “toughest tests” faced by initiated draft laws. As a result, every third registered draft law (1,904 legislative initiatives) is still being considered by the Committee.
According to Civil Network OPORA’s analyst Andrii Savchuk, parliamentary committees have held 2,283 meetings over a 3.5-year period of work of the Verkhovna Rada. “During this period, the largest number of meetings were held by representatives of budget (141 meetings) and anti-corruption (119) committees. Only nine MPs have 100% attendance at the meetings of parliamentary committees: Olena Boiko, Oleh Velikin, Viktor Galasiuk, Artur Palatnyi, Vladyslav Sevriukov, Olga Chervakova, Hryhorii Shverk, Tetiana Yuzkova and Nina Yuzhanina. 18 MPs attended 10 (or less) percent of the meetings of relevant parliamentary committees over a 3.5-year period of work of the Verkhovna Rada. This refers to Viacheslav Bohuslaiev, Yurii Boiko, Mykhailo Dobkin, Pavlo Baloha, Kostiantyn Zhevaho, Andrii Biletskyi, Yurii Solod, Oleksandr Vilkul, Dmytro Yarosh, Ruslan Solvar, Dmytro Dobkin, Oleksandr Onyshchenko, Serhii Lovochkin, Yevhen Bakulin, Andrii Denysenko, Serhii Kliuiev, Yuliia Tymoshenko ta Stepan Ivakhiv”, - he told.
Having analyzed the authorship of laws adopted by the Parliament over the past three and a half years, we've got an understanding of how various subjects of legislative initiative share the responsibility for current policy. Thus, 52% of the total number of laws adopted by 8th convocation of the Parliament were initiated by MPs, 33% - by the Cabinet of Ministers, and 15% - by the President. Therefore, MPs, the Government and the President are equally responsible for shaping the current policy and updating the legal framework. Moreover, not only parliamentary factions forming part of government coalition, but also other political forces whose legislative initiatives were adopted and became laws in effect share this responsibility.
The event was organized by Civil Network OPORA under USAID's Program RADA: Accountability, Responsibility, and Democratic Parliamentary Representation (RADA) Program, supported by the Eastern European Fund and partners.
Here you may find a full text of the research.
For further information, please contact:
Kateryna Zhemchuzhnykova, Communications Manager at Civil Network OPORA
Phone: 066 270 17 13
e-mail: [email protected]