Yanukovych supports Kravchuk’s Constitutional reform initiative

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych signed an order on Monday to support an initiative to form a Constitutional Assembly, according to the presidential website. The first meeting of an expert group, led by Ukraine’s first president Leonid Kravchuk (1991-1994), to establish the assembly took place on Monday. In an interview published yesterday by the daily Kommersant, Kravchuk said the process would take time as the assembly would seek input from society and work closely with the Venice Commission, with the ultimate goal of producing a new draft Constitution for the president to submit to parliament. Ukraine’s current constitution was adopted in June 1996. Brad Wells: As with any other major government initiative, the key questions are the degree to which this process incorporates public and international input, and especially how politically neutral it stays. Both the public and international community have reason to doubt Yanukovych’s commitment to true and equitable Constitutional reform; last year the Constitutional Court, at the request of Yanukovych allies, threw out 2004 amendments that limited his authority. However, the initiative’s auspicious leadership by Kravchuk, a Yanukovych critic and campaign supporter of rival Yulia Tymoshenko in the 2010 presidential election, is a positive signal.