Parliament to introduce draft laws corresponding to EU requirements

The Verkhovna Rada plans in the near future to include in the plan of consideration bills concerning the implementation of the recommendations of the European Commission on granting Ukraine the status of a candidate for membership of the European Union, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk said.

“The Parliament is involved in the implementation of six of the seven requirements that Ukraine has received from the European Commission and the European Council regarding candidacy for EU membership. Seven requirements is a separate track. This applies to the law on the Constitutional Court (the introduction of elected positions), and the appointment of members of the Supreme Council of Justice by Parliament, and the issue of de-oligarchization and financial monitoring, and issues related to the media, and the issue of national communities. In the near future we will put them in the order of consideration of the Parliament of Ukraine,” the speaker said in a comment to the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Monday.

At the same time, he drew attention to the fact that the fulfillment of Ukraine’s obligations to adapt national legislation to the legislation of the European Union is a separate “track” that the Rada is working on.

“Together with the government, we conducted the first stage of mutual verification of how many bills aimed at European integration are already in the Verkhovna Rada, and this figure is 49. According to these 49 documents, we will definitely give 30 days for the first time in the history of the Parliament to bring them into line with the resolution [No. 7595 ‘On certain measures for Ukraine’s obligations in the field of European integration’]: there should be a table of compliance with EU directives. That is, there will be not just a traditional comparative table of how it was and how it became, but there will be another, additional column about how this or that provision meets the EU requirements and which point of which directive can be referred to,” Stefanchuk explained.

According to him, this is necessary so that “expert opinion is privileged and there is an understanding in the hall to what extent this or that bill corresponds to the requirements of the EU.”

At the same time, the head of the Verkhovna Rada stressed that 49 draft laws are far from an exceptional list, but only an initial number.

“Therefore, it is very important to try out a new mechanism for considering European integration bills on these 49 bills, concerning which we have an absolute understanding with the government. And then we will need a certain pause to work out other draft laws that would already fully implement all the European requirements into Ukrainian legislation,” he said.

Stefanchuk also recalled that in this regard, the Rada itself decided to implement a number of reforms. First of all, sub-committees on European integration will be created in each committee. They will interact with the committees in the European Parliament and the parliaments of the EU member states.

“This is very important, because they [Ukrainian parliamentarians] should be involved in this issue, feel their responsibility and improve their professional level. Therefore, the second issue that we are discussing is the holding of special trainings for the staff of the Verkhovna Rada, for the secretariats of committees and, of course, for deputies of Ukraine involved in these European integration tracks,” the speaker said.

In addition, he added that the Rada, together with the Cabinet of Ministers, intends to carry out “a number of measures to create a unified database of official translations of the directives of the European Union.”