President Petro Poroshenko’s party published a draft agreement on a government coalition on its website late on Nov. 14.
Pro-European parties have been in talks on forming a coalition since the Oct. 26 parliamentary election. These include the two biggest parties, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front and the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, as well as Lviv Mayor Andiy Sadovy’s Samopomich, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna and populist Oleh Lyashko’s Radical Party.
The draft coalition agreement does not include one of the key reforms that has been discussed by the participants of the talks – depriving lawmakers of parliamentary immunity, Yegor Sobolev, a lawmaker on Samopomich’s list, said on Nov. 14.
Viktoriya Syumar, No. 7 on the People’s Front’s list, said by phone that her party wanted lawmakers to be deprived of immunity jointly with judges and the president.
Among other measures, the agreement stipulates adopting measures “to return the autonomous republic of Crimea and Sevastopol to Ukraine and to resume the work of legitimate authorities on the whole territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.”
Another clause envisages canceling Ukraine’s non-aligned status as part of the country’s efforts to join NATO.
The negotiators also agreed on carrying out electoral reforms that include switching from a mixed representation system to party-list proportional representation with open lists and tightening penalties for violations of electoral law.
The draft also envisages a constitutional reform without giving details. Syumar said that the reform would be aimed at decentralization of government.
Other reforms include bringing the law enforcement system in line with Western standards, strengthening judicial independence, making the funding of parties more transparent and creating a National Anti-Corruption Bureau in January 2015.
The economic clauses include incentives for high-tech businesses, liberalizing currency controls, cutting red tape for businesses and reducing the number of taxes to nine.
The agreement is expected to be signed when the new Verkhonva Rada convenes, Syumar said, adding that it could happen in late November.
She said she expected Yatsenyuk to remain prime minister.
“I have not seen any statement contradicting the thesis that Yatsenyuk was elected as prime minister of Ukraine by the people,” Syumar said, referring to the fact that the People’s Front got 22.14 percent, the biggest percentage in party list voting.
Yatesnyuk and Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Groisman, Poroshenko’s preferred candidate, have been the leading contenders for the job of prime minister.
Yatsenyuk proposed his candidates for ministerial portfolios on Nov. 14 but Pavel Rozenko, a lawmaker on the Petro Poroshenko Bloc’s list, said later that 80 percent of those candidates were unlikely to be approved by the president. He said that his party would submit its candidates after the final composition of the government coalition became clear.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected].
