The Ukrainian parliament on April 30 enacted a special procedure that will allow it to fast-track the hearing of the bank law, which has faced unprecedented obstruction from some lawmakers.
Passing the law is required by the International Monetary Fund for Ukraine to receive a much-needed $8-billion loan. The bill would outlaw the return of nationalized banks to their previous owners. It is designed to end oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky’s aggressive campaign to regain control of Privatbank, Ukraine’s largest bank, which he co-owned before it was nationalized in 2016.
The special procedure will allow parliament to hear over 16,000 amendments proposed to the law in batches, paving the way for the law to be voted on in early May. Enacting the special procedure was supported by 255 lawmakers.
This is the first time the procedure has been enacted. It was specifically designed to speed up the passage of the bank law, which was approved in its first reading in late March, but faced obstruction.
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The bank bill is widely known as the anti-Kolomoisky law. The state alleges that, under the ownership of Kolomoisky and his business partner Gennady Boholyubov, a total of $5.5 billion was stolen from the bank through insider loans. Today, the state-owned Privatbank is suing Kolomoisky in Ukraine, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Israel and Cyprus. Kolomoisky is counter-suing in Ukraine, alleging that the state raided his property.
After the first reading in March, the bank law has been blocked by a handful of lawmakers who proposed over 16,000 amendments, a record number for the Ukrainian parliament. Most of the lawmakers behind the amendments are linked to Kolomoisky.
If not for the special procedure, each amendment would be heard in parliament separately, blocking the law for over six months, according to Speaker Dmytro Razumkov.
Earlier this year, it took 52 days to hear 4,018 amendments proposed to the previous crucial piece of legislation – the law on lifting the moratorium on farmland sale.
The special procedure was drafted and voted in by parliament on April 16 to tackle some lawmakers’ attempts to stall legislation.
Now with the new special procedure in place, parliamentary factions will be allowed to nominate up to five of their amendments to be discussed separately, while independent lawmakers will be allowed to nominate a single amendment. All the other amendments will be grouped and voted on as a whole.
