Ukraine parliament won’t complete anti-corruption bill today, speaker says

Ukraine’s parliament
won’t be able to complete today its review of the anti-corruption
court legislation that
is needed to secure the critical next IMF loan tranche, Speaker Andriy Parubiy
told parliament on May 24. “I thought yesterday that it will go through, but I
see that it’s going too slow,” he said, as reported by the Ukrinform news
agency. “And I understand that we won’t be able to reach a decision even
today.” Negotiations on the legislation’s contentious points – such as the
authority of international experts to select judges – are ongoing, he said,
while “all other positions have been agreed upon.”

Recall, Ukraine’s
parliament is currently reviewing the second reading of a bill creating the
High Anti-Corruption Court in line with requirements set by the Council of Europe.
The first reading was widely criticized by Western authorities. The legislation
is critical to receive the next IMF tranche, estimated at up to USD 1.9 bln, which will also unlock USD 1.4
bln in further loans from Western IFIs and replenish Ukraine’s reserves ahead
of the 2019 elections and large scheduled debt payments. As of 13:00 May 24,
536 out of 1,927 amendments had been reviewed, Ukrinform said.

Zenon Zawada: Today
is the last chance this month for parliament to approve the legislation, yet it’s
still under committee review. Four plenary sessions are scheduled for June 5-8.
Alarm bells will go off in Ukraine’s financial community if the legislation
isn’t approved by then, given that the IMF board needs two weeks to perform its
review for the loan tranche and regularly goes on vacation in late July.
Parliament will be playing a very risky game if it procrastinates approval
until the week of June 19, July 3 or July 10, when there are four plenary
sessions each. By the time September rolls around, the presidential election
campaign will be in full swing and Ukraine would have to start the process over
again for securing a new loan tranche.