Ukraine parliament convenes with reforms agenda

Speaker Andriy
Parubiy opened the fall session of Ukraine’s parliament on Sept. 4 highlighting
its main priorities, which he identified as amending the constitution to
include Euro-Atlantic integration, approving the 2019 budget, updating the
elections code and appointing new members to the Central Election Commission.
The prior day, he sent a tweet identifying seven key legislative blocks,
consisting of national security, the 2019 budget, the elections code, a
language law, Euro-integration bills, economic issues and eliminating political
immunity.

In the sphere of
security, parliament will review bills on reforming the security service,
intelligence bodies, state defense contracting, and creating a parliamentary
committee to oversee security and intelligence, Parubiy told an agenda meeting
on Sept. 3. Ensuring information security is also a priority, he said. More
than 20 bills required for Euro-integration are ready for review, he said.

President Poroshenko
has registered in parliament legislation amending the Ukrainian constitution to
ensure the nation’s Euro-Atlantic integration course, said on Sept. 3 Iryna Lutsenko, the president’s representative
to parliament. The president also proposes legislation charging rent for the
temporary stationing of foreign military formations on Ukraine’s territory, she
said, referring to the stationing of Russian military vessels in occupied
Crimea.

Zenon Zawada: We expect much of the parliament’s
Euro-Atlantic legislation to pass, given that the election campaign season is
in full swing and the majority of MPs will be competing to outdo one another in
their commitment to Western integration. We give even chances (50/50) for the
constitution to be amended to include Euro-Atlantic integration, though we
don’t see that changing much pragmatically. We expect most security-related
proposals will also be approved, especially those targeting Russia.

Amending Ukraine’s elections code to introduce an open-list voting
system for parliament would dramatically reduce the influence of Ukraine’s
oligarchs, particularly the president. For that very reason, we don’t expect it
will draw enough support. Appointments to the Central Election Commission, amid
an intense election campaign, promise to produce conflicts and accusations of
unfairness.