As there still was the quarantine in May, the Parliament continued working in the format of extraordinary sittings. They can be initiated by the President of Ukraine or a third part of MPs. There were 4 such meetings in May (on 7, 13, 19 and 20 May). Thus, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a number of legislative initiatives in May. In particular, it voted on a law that gives extra guarantees for health care and other employees who are involved in protection of the population against infectious diseases, as well as their family members.
MPs supported In the second reading and in general the Law on Improving Some Mechanisms for Banking Regulation (#2571-д). This draft law concerns peculiarities of litigations in cases involving withdrawal of banks from the market (including the "PrivatBank" case). According to regulations of this draft law, compensation of losses to owners and former owners of banks, whose interests were violated due to the withdrawal of institution from the market, is possible only in monetary form. Adoption of this Law together with the Law on the Free Land Market, was one of the IMF's conditions for providing financial assistance to Ukraine. This Law is also called "anti-Kolomoiskyi" because it is aimed to prevent former owners from getting back the nationalized Privatbank. This is the very draft law to which MPs submitted 16,000 amendments in April.
Besides that, Verkhovna Rada also supported in the first reading the Draft Law #3355-1 on Amendments to Some Laws of Ukraine Concerning the Definition of Entities Subject to Anti-Corruption Legislation. Among other things, the Law gives another interpretation for family members whose property is subject to declaration. Thus, children who do not live with the declarant are excluded from the document. This allows not to declare property, registered for minor children, who do not live with the declarant. In addition, the draft law introduces the need to declare property of supervisory board members and cancels declaration of property for its advisors, assistants, authorized representatives and press-secretary of the President of Ukraine, if they work on a voluntary basis.
In May, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine supported 32 draft laws. 22 of them were passed as a basis in the first reading. The other 10 were voted on in total. 9 of these laws were initiated by MPs, and one by the President.
Registered draft laws
In May, 130 draft laws were registered in the Parliament. 119 of them were submitted by MPs, which is 91.5%. Another 11 were submitted by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which is 8.5%.
How factions voted
The Parliament had 161 votings in May, and the "Rada"system button was pressed 70,474 times. MPs voted "for" the most often (55.6% of the total number of the button being pushed). MPs "abstained" in 17.2% of cases, and voted "against" in 2.4%. In 13.5% of cases MPs were absent and 11.3% did not vote.
MPs from the Servant of the People have the biggest percentage of "for" votes (71.8%), the Dovira group of MPs is on the second place (57.9%). The Batkivshchyna faction and the Opposition Platform - For Life voted "for"the least often, 22.7% and 21.2% respectively.
Parties the Opposition Platform - For Life (10.5%) and the Holos (7.6%) vote "against" the most often. The For the Future group of MPs has the smallest percentage of "against" votes (0.7%).
Parties European Solidarity (47.7%) and the Opposition Platform - For Life (23.7%) have the biggest percentage of "abstained" votes. The Servant of the People party has the smallest percentage of "abstained" (11.8%).
Voting absentees
In May, 65 MPs missed more than 30% of the votings in the Parliament. Thus, these were 29 MPs from the Servant of the People faction, 10 from the Batkivshchyna, 7 from the Opposition Platform for Life, 6 from the Holos, 5 non-faction MPs, 5 from the European Solidarity, 6 - For the Future, 2 - Dovira.
According to law amendments approved in October 2019, the attendance of MPs on plenary sessions will now be measured by their participation in voting. That is, if an MP does not vote, then he is not present at the session. The MPs who miss more than 30% of the votes shall not be reimbursed for the expenses related to the exercise of their parliamentary powers for the respective calendar month. Such a decision should be taken by the Committee on the Rules of Parliamentary Ethics and Organization of Work. This amount is equal to a monthly salary of an MP and is not subject to taxation.
According to the Resolution on Financial Support of Members of Parliament of Ukraine, the base salary of an MP fluctuates from 10 to 12 subsistence minimums (from UAH 20,270 to 24,324 in 2020). Besides the base salary, MPs also receive allowances and surcharges (for MPs who have a scientific degree or honorary title).
9 MPs missed 100% of votings:Alona Shkrum (Batkivshchyna), Anzhelika Labunska (Batkivshchyna), Vadym Stolar (Opposition Platform - For Life), Valerii Dubil (Batkivshchyna), Viktor Baloha (For the Future), Vitalii Danilov (Batkivshchyna), Serhii Rudyk (non-faction), Volodymyr Viatrovych (European Solidarity) and Yana Zinkevych (European Solidarity).
Against the faction line
Oleksandr Dubinskyi from the Servant of the People follows the party line the least often in current Parliament. Thus, his choice differ from the party line in 74.9% of votes.
Petro Poroshenko follows the party line the least often among MPs of the European Solidarity. His votes contrary to the party line reach 62.4%.
Yurii Zahorondii from the Opposition Platform - For Life is the one who votes contrary to the party line the most often. His "rebellion" percentage reaches almost 61.8%.
In the For the Future group of MPs, Viktor Baloha votes on his own the most often. Thus, he voted contrary to the party line in 50.3% of cases.
In the Holos faction, Sviatoslav Vakarchuk votes contrary to the line of party the most often. The MP has 46.7% of such votes.
Oleh Kulinich is the rebellion in the Dovira group of MPs. In 43.1% of cases, he voted against the position of the group.
In the Batkivshchyna faction, Serhii Taruta votes contrary to the line of party the most often, and has 28.5% of such votes.
Speeches
In May, Iryna Herashchenko, a Member of Parliament from the European Solidarity, spoke the most in the Parliament - 23 minutes and 6 seconds. Batkivshchyna leader Yuliia Tymoshenko spoke 22 minutes 27 seconds, Taras Batenko (For the Future) - 17 minutes 30 seconds, Oleksandr Kachura (Servant of the People) - 14 minutes 25 seconds, Nestor Shufrych (Opposition Platform - For Life) - 14 minutes 6 seconds.