Voting for EU-integration laws

4 of 12 adopted laws pertaining to Eu-integration matters were not supported by the Communist Party of Ukraine, 2 by the AUU Batkivshchyna and 2 by UDAR; AUU Svoboda failed to support 1 law. The Party of Regions and non-faction MPs voted for all the laws unanimously. Such data were received by the Civil Network OPORA after analyzing how the factions voted for EU-integration laws.

During elaboration of the documents, it turned out that some representatives of government bodies do not differentiate EU-integration laws among other laws. Besides that, deputies started disputing in the Parliament on which exactly draft laws will contribute to signing of the Association Agreement. Therefore, OPORA urges the government to openly publish a full list of draft laws with their numbers, which are going to be adopted before the summit in Vilnius. The organization is calling the government and the opposition to be especially considerate when working on elaboration of documents, and amending the bills drafted by executive bodies and the corresponding parliamentary committees.

A half of draft laws was initiated by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine; 5 – by the corresponding committees (on Legislative Support of Law Enforcement, on Organized Crime Control and Anti-Corruption, and on State Building and Local Self-Government), and one – by the President of Ukraine (regarding powers of the Accounting Chamber).

The draft Law on Making Amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine on the Transfer Pricing (#2515), became the stumbling block for MPs. It wasn't supported by three factions: AUU Batkivshchyna, UDAR, and AUU Svoboda. The document, which was elaborated by the Ministry of Revenue and Taxation, provides a mechanism to combat the withdrawal of profits to the offshore zones and countries with low levels of taxation. The opposition affirms that the draft law doesn't correspond to the norms and standards of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, which were supposed to become its foundation, and that the bill will allow influencing the internal pricing, what may negatively influence the economic situation.

Although the AUU Batkivshchyna and UDAR didn't support the Draft Law on Making Amendments to Some Laws of Ukraine on Bringing National Legislation in Accordance with the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine (#0894), the AUU Svoboda voted for it.

The Communist Party of Ukraine didn't vote for the Draft Law on Re-Election in 5 Problematic Districts (#2971-Д), the Draft Laws regarding the Plan for Implementation of the EU-Ukraine Action Plan on Visa Liberalization (#2803 and #2990), and the Draft Law on Making Amendments to Some Laws of Ukraine on Bringing National Legislation in Accordance with the Standards of the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (#2802).

The opposition have also failed to unanimously support the Draft Law on Making Amendments to Some Laws of Ukraine on the Transparency of Media Ownership (#2731) – only a half of the opposition MPs voted for this draft law. Besides that, 43% of the Batkivshchyna failed to vote for the draft law #2990 (regarding the plan for implementation of the EU-Ukraine Action Plan on visa liberalization and responsibility of legal entities).

The Party of Regions was the most dutiful during the voting – from 80 to 92% of its members participated in the voting for every of 12 EU-integration laws. Only one faction voted in full membership – AUU Svoboda, which has given 100% of votes to the draft law #2803 and #2802. The AUU Batkivshchyna was the least unanimous during the voting. More than one third of its members didn't support 3 bills, and 20% failed to vote for the other 4 initiatives.

The Civil Network OPORA is non-governmental, nonpartisan and financially independent all-Ukrainian network of civic activists. We united to enhance public participation in the political process by developing and implementing models of citizen participation in the activities of state and local governments.