Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine

The Chair of the Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the EU took part in the online presentation of the monitoring report “Activities of the Verkhovna Rada Committees 2020: Effectiveness and Interaction with Stakeholders”.

Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze stressed that the Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the EU was one of the busiest. It shall review all legislative acts registered in the Verkhovna Rada. According to the Center for Democracy and the Rule of Law, members of the Ukrainian Parliament initiate 25 times more legislation than in British Parliament, 300 times more than in Norway or Switzerland, and 140 times more than in Greece. In May, 3,540 draft laws have been registered in the Verkhovna Rada. For the 4th session, 50 days were allocated for work in committees. During this period, the Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the EU received a 1,000 draft laws. “If we make simple calculations, for so many drafts we have in the Committee today, we would have to meet every day for these 50 days, for seven hours continuously. The Committee would have to consider 71 drafts each time. Each meeting would have last at least 24 hours. This is unreal”, — the Chair said. In addition, the analysis of draft laws is not the only function of the Committee. It also monitors the implementation of the Association Agreement in various areas, holds hearings, monitors the Government's initiatives related to cooperation with the EU. To cope with the huge amount of work, according to the Chair, it’s necessary to prioritize tasks. In particular, to consider those projects that directly relate to Ukraine’s obligations under the Association Agreement first.

Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze called to adhere to the legislative work plan so that all committees had time to do their job effectively: “We would have 21 days provided by the regulations to consider a draft law. But in practice drafts enter the Verkhovna Rada hall immediately after registration. Sometimes I just have to snatch from political debates those drafts that can be risky, urgently ask the Committee staff to examine these drafts to make a decision, because I understand that they can be risky”. The Chair of the Committee also noted that very often the authors of drafts did not follow the conclusions of the Committee: “I believe, if we have a negative opinion of our Committee, we should not consider these draft laws further in the Verkhovna Rada, but, unfortunately, our decision is only recommendatory”.

At the same time, despite the heavy workload, the members of the Committee, according to the Chair, managed to work effectively: “We managed to agree with our colleagues — and this is a rather unique situation — to apply a completely apolitical approach to the issues. We may disagree with some things, but we consider the issue professionally, in terms of the responsibility of our Committee and our powers”.

Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze informed that the Committee was cooperating with the Government Office for Coordination of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration. But this cooperation needs to be significantly improved, as the institutional capacity of the Government Office is unfortunately destroyed and not all conclusions are received. Also, according to the Chair, work with a large number of stakeholders has been established and due to the fact that the Committee works with various EU projects, UNDP, the Verkhovna Rada Information and Research Center it has the opportunity to consider more draft laws. However, this does not solve the problem of overburdening. Today, according to Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, there is no single vision in the Parliament as to solving the problem of legislative spam. A major problem is the lack of political will to address this issue, as well as the lack of evolution of political culture in Ukraine. “Obviously, this requires changes to the Constitution, I do not see the political will for this, and I do not see the readiness of people's deputies to limit their rights of legislative initiative”, — the Committee Chair concluded.