U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland met with a number of Ukrainian parliamentarians in Kyiv on July 15 to try to persuade them to support the last version of the presidential bill on amending the constitution as concerns the decentralization of the national governance system, says Leonid Yemets of the People's Front parliamentary faction.
“The U.S. embassy asked me about a meeting with Victoria Nuland. Such a meeting took place yesterday. We talked about today’s voting on constitutional amendments. Nuland insisted that this should demonstrate the implementation of the Minsk agreements by Ukraine,” Yemets told journalists on the sidelines of a parliamentary session on July 16 morning.
He explained that the matter concerns “an updated version” of the presidential bill.
Parliamentarians from other factions making up the parliamentary majority also attended this meeting, Yemets said.
It was reported earlier that Nuland is visiting Ukraine and should meet with the country’s leadership, other policymakers, businessmen, and civil society members to discuss a package of bilateral and regional issues.
Nuland told journalists on Wednesday evening that the presidential bill on amending the constitution concerning the decentralization of the governance system, which had been submitted to the Rada, should help implement the Minsk agreements and settle the conflict in Donbas.
The Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada’s website on July 15 published an updated version of the presidential bill on amending the constitution regarding the decentralization of the governance system. The most significant difference between the updated bill and the initial version registered by the Rada on July 1 is the provision stipulating that specifics of local self-governance in certain districts in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions would be determined by a special law.
