Deputies do not want to disperse before all issues of the session are considered

The Party of Regions does not rule out extending the session of the Verkhovna Rada of the sixth convocation for week X and has already registered a draft corresponding resolution. Representatives of the parliamentary majority attribute this to the need to pass “socially important” bills. Among the issues that deputies are going to consider before the end of the session are the law on the luxury tax, the scandalous bill “On the Fundamentals of State Language Policy,” as well as the abolition of parliamentary immunity.

The statement that people's deputies can extend the X session of the Verkhovna Rada of the VI convocation was made by the chairman of the Party of Regions (PR) faction, Alexander Efremov, yesterday. According to him, if parliament does not have time to consider “socially important” bills at the current session, the last plenary session of which is scheduled to take place on July 6, then the Party of Regions will insist on extending it for another plenary week. “To be honest, I have a hard time even understanding how much time we have to consider these documents and, based on regulatory standards, have time to adopt them at the current session,” Mr. Efremov emphasized. At the same time, he added that the issue of the advisability of extending the session has not yet been finally resolved, however, “an instruction has been given to prepare a corresponding draft resolution (on the extension of the Xth session - Kommersant).” Yesterday, this document was registered by People's Deputy Nikolai Komar (PR).

It should be noted that at the current session, people's deputies need to consider a number of high-profile bills, the adoption of which the leaders of various political forces previously promised. Among them is the government law on the luxury tax, which, along with several alternative documents, deputies included on the session agenda yesterday. “Our point of view on them is the following: firstly, we must look at everything that is in these bills, take one of them as a basis, and include everything reasonable that is (in the remaining bills - Kommersant) in it “, explained Alexander Efremov. “If we manage to work normally, and the audience does not object, then we can consider it in the first reading this week, and then adopt it as a whole using an abbreviated procedure.”

Another high-profile document that PR representatives propose to consider before the end of the session is the bill by Vadim Kolesnichenko and Sergei Kivalov “On the foundations of state language policy,” adopted in the first reading on June 5 (see Kommersant on June 6 ). “The Verkhovna Rada, represented by the majority, wants to adopt this document before leaving for the summer holidays - according to the regulations, there are all possibilities for this,” Mr. Kolesnichenko told reporters yesterday. At the same time, representatives of the opposition are extremely negative about this law - at yesterday’s meeting of the BYuT-Batkivshchyna faction, its members were even conveyed a request from the leader of the Batkivshchyna party, Yulia Tymoshenko, not to allow the adoption of this law. “Yulia Tymoshenko set the task for the faction to be united, monolithic... and did everything possible to oppose the adoption of the language bill,” MP Sergei Sas, who visited her the day before, conveyed Mrs. Tymoshenko’s wishes to her faction colleagues.

Meanwhile, the main event of the remaining plenary days of the 10th session of the Rada may be a vote to amend the Constitution to abolish parliamentary immunity. Let us remind you that two relevant documents are currently being considered in parliament: Nikolai Tomenko’s bill, which provides for the lifting of immunity from deputies, judges and the president, and the bill of Viktor Yanukovych and Alexander Lavrynovych, which provides for the lifting of immunity only from people’s deputies (see Kommersant on May 25 and June 19). “If we vote on our bill on July 5, then we have the opportunity to finally put an end to this issue in September,” Alexander Efremov said yesterday. Representatives of the opposition call on the PR faction to support their document. “I hope that the deputies of the majority will support him; they should not have a motive not to vote,” the head of the parliamentary committee on legal policy, Sergei Mishchenko (BYuT-Batkivshchyna), told reporters yesterday.

Valery Kucheruk

Newspaper "Kommersant Ukraine" No. 94 dated June 20, 2012, p. 2

Themes:

Activities of the Verkhovna Rada

Glad to work until the end