Modern European parliament working on a high-quality level and targeted on making professional decision – is a brave ambition. On 5 February, Ukrainian citizen parliamentary monitoring organizations presented a mechanism that may be used to embody this ambition during a presentation of the Parliament Modernization Program and Ukraine's official joining to the international Declaration on Parliamentary Openness in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
Work Plan for implementation of the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness, developed by the Civil Network OPORA, CHESNO Civic Movement, Transparency International Ukraine, Center for Political Studies and Analysis, and Media Law Institute assisted by the United Nations Development Program in Ukraine, displays Ukraine's joining to the global movement for greater openness of representative legislative bodies in the world. The work plan comprises 20 obligations between the Parliament and civil society in the following areas:
- information access;
- engaging citizens in parliamentary processes;
- reporting;
- technologies and innovations.
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Volodymyr Hroisman said, presenting the initiative: “We need to change the procedures and system of Parliament's work. Open Parliament includes, among other things, electronic document circulation, personal voting on committee meetings, on-line streaming of committee meetings, electronic minutes, updated websites of committees etc.”
MP of Ukraine Svitlana Zalishchuk, who had initiated Ukraine's joining to the global initiative, told about the ambition to make Ukrainian Parliament more open. “We have already published MPs' declarations and information about assistants in open access, made parliamentary committees open for journalists, and are working on further irreversible changes in the Verkhovna Rada,” – said Svitlana Zalishchuk
OPORA's Electoral and Parliamentary Programs Coordinator Olha Aivazovska emphasized the importance of institutional, governing and procedural amendments in the Parliament itself: “Good parliamentarism is possible only when the Parliament represents moods and political preferences of the public, and when it is institutionally independent, open, accountable, and transparent. Thanks to the efficient implementation of the Work plan for implementation of the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness, we may come 2 steps closer to the most advanced states with high level of political culture.”
Andrii Kruhlashov (CHESNO Civic Movement) is convinced that Open Parliament initiative will help to restore public trust in MPs and secure against any totalitarian symptoms.
As for Oleksii Khmara, Executive Director of the Transparency International Ukraine, he hopes that parliamentary openness and implementation of the Work Plan will prevent conflict of interests in activities of MPs. “The work plan on parliamentary openness involves a number of efficient measures to prevent conflict of interests in activities of MPs and, besides that, violation of ethical standards. How this may be put into practice? MPs need a code of ethical conduct and simple and applicable report form for conflicts of interests,” – thinks Oleksii Khmara.
Viktor Taran, the Head of the Center for Political Studies and Analysis, which is responsible for implementation and adherence to the plan, commented: “Information about the use of budget resources has always been a secret, and the public didn't have any access to the budget and estimate of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. To secure a complete transparency, Parliament's website should contain a section “Budget Use”, containing budget and estimate of the Parliament, financial report for the previous year, budget requests, and passports of budget programs. All these data must be machine readable to facilitate open data use in Ukraine.”
High-quality communication between the Verkhovna Rada and citizens is another important task. The public should be properly informed about any novelties. Thus, according to Director of the Media Law Institute and co-Head of the RPR Board Taras Shevchenko, parliamentary media need to be modernized, reject Soviet approaches to providing the public with information, and introduce transparency and openness standards. “We hope that Parliament's leaders will not delay reforming of the Holos Ukrainy and Viche newspapers, as well as the Rada TV channel,” – summarized Taras Shevchenko.
MPs present in the session hall as well as representatives of diplomatic missions from European states supported the parliamentary openness initiative and Parliament's key role in establishment of social and political values.
Reference: The Declaration on Parliamentary Openness, which draws on a variety of background documents endorsed by the international parliamentary community, was initially discussed at a conference of PMO leaders that was co-hosted by the National Democratic Institute, the Sunlight Foundation, and the Latin American Legislative Transparency Network in Washington, D.C. The final version of the Declaration, which resides at OpeningParliament.org was launched at the World e-Parliament Conference in Rome on the International Day of Democracy, September 15, 2012.
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Photos by: Hanna Hrabarska
Reference:
The Civil Network OPORA - is a non-governmental, non-political and financially independent all-Ukrainian network of 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.