You're reading: Verkhovna Rada returns after two-month break

On Sept. 6, the fifth session of the current parliament’s convocation opened, ending a two-month summer break.

Among the main expectations of the next several months is the discussion of the state budget for 2017, a change of the election legislation, and the decentralization of power. At the same time, the opposition, in a bid to win points with the voters, demands cancellation of the unpopular law increasing gas and electricity prices, passed at the last session.

See the photo gallery: Lawmakers return after summer break

Only 367 of 423 lawmakers showed up in parliament for the first day of the new session.

 

On its first day, the parliament passed only a handful of decisions: It allowed the arrest of a corrupt judge, legitimized the colleges that were forced to move out of the occupied territories in the Donbas, passed several bills that serve the rights of the convicts, and dismissed MP Dmytro Storozhuk, who during the summer break took up the position of deputy prosecutor general.

 

Poroshenko speaks

 

President Petro Poroshenko opened the new session, addressing the Verkhovna Rada with a speech. He called the parliament, where his Poroshenko Bloc is the biggest faction, to unity in the challenging times. The full transcript of Poroshenko’s speech is available on the president’s website.

 

Poroshenko bragged about the successes of the authorities in the past two years, citing the Russian aggression as the only reason why they aren’t more visible. His speech was met with criticism both in parliament and beyond.

 

“It’s a beautiful speech, but it seems that it’s not about this country,” said Mustafa Nayyem, a lawmaker with the Poroshenko Bloc. “The speech described what we aim for, not what is actually happening now.”

 

In one of the most criticized parts of the speech Poroshenko praised the law enforcers for arresting “many top officials” on corruption charges, while in fact, they have allowed high-profile suspects, including lawmakers, to escape the country several times.

 

This trend continued as the parliament voted on its first session day to allow the arrest of Mykola Chaus, a judge of Dniprovsky District Court in Kyiv, who has already escaped Kyiv. According to Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Nazar Kholodnytskiy, Chaus could be hiding in Russian-occupied Crimea.

 

The judge’s name made the headlines in early August, when he was charged with bribery. The investigators searched his house and found jars with cash buried in the backyard.

 

Poroshenko also addressed the recent discussion of a proposed cancellation of the state-paid scholarships for college students. The officials in the Finance Ministry and the Education Ministry proposed to stop paying a meager Hr 832 monthly scholarship to all students whose average score is B, and instead pay a higher scholarship to the financially challenged students and those showing academic excellence.

 

The idea proved unpopular among most students, and Poroshenko was quick to side with them.

 

“I will not sign the next year’s budget if it cancels scholarships, state-funded graduate schools, or has any other experiments of the kind,” he said, speaking in parliament.

 

Expectations: budget, election reform, anti-corruption moves

 

The current session will last through the end of January, after which the parliament shall go to a short break.

 

The Kyiv Post asked the lawmakers what they think was the most important decision to be voted in the next few months.

 

Yegor Sobolev (Samopomich Party):

 

“Three decisions are the most important ones. The first one is a law that will allow the Anti-Corruption Bureau tap the phones by a court ruling, without getting the Security Service of Ukraine involved. Now its involvement makes the corruptionists inside the Secret Service untouchable. The bureau should be able to reach anyone. The second one is a bill to create the anti-corruption court. The third one will hit the corruptionists in politics. All the elections are now won by the oligarchs who invest hundreds of millions in the promotion of the parties they want to see in parliament, and bribe the voters in the single-constituency districts. We must switch to an election system with the open party lists and cancel political advertising.”

 

Hanna Hopko (Independent, former Samopomich):

 

“The most important is to work together for the results. This is something we haven’t seen yet. It must begin now.

 

“Decentralization is an inevitable process. Rotating the members of the Central Election Commission would be an important decision. Then, the budget. Everyone says it’s important (to pass it on schedule), and that passing it right before the New Year is our tradition – but let’s change this tradition this year.

 

“The law regulating the gas trade market that was so hard to pass doesn’t actually work because we still need to pass several more bills (that go along with it). We need a law on a single body to regulate the energy market to eliminate the huge corruption present in this field. There is a package of energy laws. The election reform is also incredibly important. We have a lot to do.”

 

Serhiy Rybalka (Oleg Lyashko’s Radical Party):

 

“What we call utility prices now – it is a genocide of the Ukrainian people. We want to make the government explain the gas prices. Secondly, we are categorically against the cancellation of the (state-paid college) scholarships. We want to pass the bill that we proposed that would create an agency that would give loans to the businesses that export goods.”

 

Ihor Lutsenko (Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna):

 

“Strategically we need to look at what is happening to the public procurement in the military, the utility prices, the fiscal policy. The parliament needs to perform a control function. The majority is against it because they are protecting their business partners.”

 

Oleksiy Ryabchyn (Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna):

 

“The main task of the parliament during this season is the state budget. It’s a quintessence of the next year policy. We need to change the budget’s philosophy from austerity, and remember about the social standards. The fiscal policy needs to change so that businesses can breathe, and people can pay taxes. The utility prices are too high, they are eating into the people’s savings.”