The current Parliament had 30% times more working days during the first two sessions than the Parliament of VII convocation (64 plenary days in comparison to 49). However, only 11 MPs were present on all the plenary sittings, and six of them are majoritarian MPs. Non-faction MPs Andrii Biletskyi, Dmytro Yarosh, and Andrii Denysenko have the worst attendance record – 5%, 6%, and 22% of plenary sittings respectively. However, the following issues still remain topical in the Parliament: low attendance on plenary sessions; some factions ignore the voting process; and there is the need to create a comprehensive system for quality assessment of bills and planning of law-making activities.
MPs have prepared 92.5% of 3711 registered bills during two sessions (11/27/2014 – 7/17/2015), and have managed to consider nearly 40% of all registered draft laws and resolutions. A little more than a half (58%) of bills considered in the Parliament were adopted. 65.5% of all adopted bills were initiated by MPs, 24.8% by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and 9.8% by the President.
Olha Aivazovska, Electoral and Parliamentary Programs Coordinator of the Civil Network OPORA, states: "AUU Batkivshchyna, Radical Party of Oleh Liashko and non-faction MPs have the highest average number of registered bills per MP (being author or co-author) – 55, 47, and 30 respectively. People's Front, Samopomich, Petro Poroshenko Block and Volia Narodu Group have quite average results – 27, 23, 22, and 19 registered bills respectively. Outsiders Opposition Block and Revival group have registered 13 bills each".
At the same time, the following MPs have registered the highest number of meaningful draft laws: Oleh Liashko (130, Radical Party), non-faction MPs Yurii Levchenko (127) and Mykhailo Holovko (124), Andrii Kozhemiakin (110, Batkivshchyna), Oleh Osukhovskyi (104, non-faction), Viktor Halasiuk (102, Radical Party), and non-faction MPs Oleksandr Marchenko (101) and Andrii Illienko (101). Activeness of AUU Svoboda can be explained by the fact that they mostly registered draft laws developed by the faction in previous convocation of the Parliament.
Another problem that is still topical for the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is attendance on plenary meetings. According to the attendance record, only 11 MPs were present at every plenary sitting without an exception, and six of them are majoritarian MPs Ihor Huz (People's Front), Volodymyr Razvadovskyi (Volia Narodu), Ihor Artiushenko (Petro Poroshenko Block), Artem Illiuk (Revival) and non-faction MPs Oleh Osukhovskyi and Andrii Illienko).
The following MPs have the lowest attendance at plenary sessions: non-faction MPs Andrii Biletskyi (5%), Dmytro Yarosh (6%), Andrii Denysenko (22%); Yaroslav Moskalenko from Volia Narodu group (23%), Mykhailo Dobkin from Opposition Block faction (26%), Volodymyr Zubyk from Volia Narodu group (28%), Vitalii Chepynoha from Petro Poroshenko Block (29%) and non-faction MP Kostiantyn Zhevaho (29%).
Dmytro Dobkin (Opposition Block) in the only MP (besides Nadiia Savchenko who is illegally detained on the territory of the Russian Federation) who didn't prepare any inquiry, didn't take the floor on plenary sittings, and didn't register any bill. Members of the People's Front turned out to be the most disciplined. They have visited 88% of plenary meetings in average. Members of the Revival deputy group showed the worst attendance of plenary meetings (68 %).
Oleksandr Kliuzhev, OPORA's analyst: “According to OPORA's calculations, the People's Front faction supported the largest number of draft decisions under consideration (69%), Radical Party of Oleh Liashko and Petro Poroshenko Block are on the second and third places – 67% and 60% respectively. As for the ruling coalition, the AUU Batkivshchyna supported the smallest number of draft laws and resolutions on the agenda (50%)”. It's interesting that the Opposition Block has ignored the voting on most of the agenda issues, and supported only some draft laws and resolutions (only 8.53 % of votes "for").
MPs who made the largest number of speeches: Oleh Liashko (Radical Party, 293 speeches), Yurii Lutsenko (Petro Poroshenko Block, 196 speeches),Oleh Bereziuk (Samopomich, 198 speeches), and non-faction MP Yurii Levchenko (AUU Svoboda, 156 speeches).
It's worth to mention that OPORA monitors activities of 36 majoritarian MPs in 12 Ukrainian oblasts under a pilot project (Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Chernivtsi, Zakarpattia, Luhansk, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Odesa, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Sumy oblasts and Kyiv city). Olena Rybii, director of the RADA project, states: “According to OPORA's observation data, 8 of 36 MPs haven't had any citizens consultations for two months (May-June 2015),what is against the Law of Ukraine on the Status of an MP of Ukraine. These MPs are: Yurii Harbuz, Robert Horvat, Vasyl Petovka, Ivan Baloha, Yevhen Bakulin, Andrii Biletskyi, Ivan Melnychuk and Andrii Derkach”. In May, only 20 of 36 MPs have reported on their activities, but this number has increased in June, and the reports are of much higher quality.
FULL REPORT: Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine: summarising two sessions
Prepared under USAID's Accountability, Responsibility, and Democratic Parliamentary Representation (RADA) Program, supported by the Eastern European Fund