Ukraine parliament opens fall session with reform agenda

Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, convened for
the fall session today. In a statement on the eve, speaker Andriy Parubiy of
the pro-EU People’s Front party identified its priorities as the approval of
many legislative reform packages, including medicine, education, judicial,
pension and parliamentary. In a similar statement, Iryna Gerashchenko, the
parliament’s deputy speaker and member of the Poroshenko Bloc, said the Rada’s
priorities will be to fulfill the legislative road map required of the Ukraine-EU
Association Agreement, which took full effect on Sept. 1.

Zenon Zawada: The
parliament’s leaders don’t wish to highlight it, but in fact their main
priority this session will be to approve legislation needed to secure the next
IMF loan tranche, which could arrive as early as October. The most important
item on this agenda will be pension adjustments, which we expect will be
approved despite populists aiming to score points on its painful measures.

Parties are already beginning to position themselves
for the crucial 2019 elections, both presidential and parliamentary. For this
reason, the president can expect fierce opposition from the pro-Western
opposition (Self-Reliance party, Fatherland party), as well as the
Russian-oriented Opposition Bloc. All these parties are aiming to capitalize on
the public dissatisfaction with socio-economic conditions.