Vladimir Lytvyn signed the law on language policy

Yesterday, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Vladimir Lytvyn, contrary to earlier promises, signed the law “On the Fundamentals of State Language Policy.” The presidential administration admits that the document was adopted in gross violation of regulations, but the chances of it being signed by the head of state are high. Mr. Lytvyn sees a way out of the situation in the adoption of a new law. The opposition has chosen the path of judicial challenge to the speaker's actions, and mass protests are not yet planned.

Vladimir Lytvyn announced his intention to sign the law “On the Fundamentals of State Language Policy” yesterday during the congress of the People’s Party he heads ( see page 2 ), noting that “he is obliged to sign the law submitted to him for signature.” In the afternoon, a message appeared on the Verkhovna Rada website that the law had been approved by the speaker and submitted to the president for signature.

As you know, the document was put to a vote in parliament on July 3 ( see Kommersant on July 4 ). Representatives of the parliamentary majority claim that the Rada adopted this document that day. Meanwhile, the transcript of the meeting shows that Vice Speaker Adam Martyniuk, who chaired the meeting, announced its adoption, but did not put the document to a vote.

Previously, Vladimir Lytvyn categorically rejected the possibility of signing the scandalous law and even resigned from the post of speaker. “The law cannot be signed, there is no reason to sign it... Firstly, a number of norms of the Verkhovna Rada regulations were violated. Secondly, it is not known from the transcript which project the deputies voted for,” Mr. Lytvyn said on July 6 in interview with TV channel "Rada".

President Viktor Yanukovych has so far refrained from making public predictions about his decision to sign the law and even assembled, according to the Chairman of the Constitutional Assembly Leonid Kravchuk, “a group of specialists who are working on how to improve this bill.” The Presidential Administration (AP) recognizes the existing problems. “The adoption of the law was in gross violation of the law on regulations, and a significant part of its provisions is not consistent with the Constitution, decisions of the Constitutional Court and international documents, in particular with the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages,” says a letter from the presidential adviser released yesterday. -Head of the Main Directorate for Constitutional and Legal Modernization of the Administrative Offenses Marina Stavniychuk, sent to the public organization "New Community".

Meanwhile, the chances of the law being approved by the president are very high. Kommersant's interlocutors in the AP have repeatedly stated that Mr. Yanukovych intends to do this. Vladimir Lytvyn, who recently discussed this issue with the head of state, yesterday also did not allow the possibility of vetoing it. At the same time, the speaker said that he sees a way out of the situation in the adoption of a new law - “On the procedure for using languages in Ukraine” - which would terminate the effect of the language law he signed yesterday.

Vladimir Lytvyn has already registered the corresponding bill in parliament. It does not contain most of the provisions that caused protests from defenders of the Ukrainian language. In particular, it is proposed to carry out legal proceedings only in Ukrainian, and in government bodies the regional language can only be used as a backup language, in parallel with the state language. Let us remind you that the law, submitted yesterday to the president for signature, provides for the right to completely replace the state language with a regional one in official records. However, the speaker has no guarantees that the Party of Regions will support his bill.

Opponents of the adoption of the language law intend to continue the fight for its repeal. “Lytvyn had no right to sign the law, because it was not adopted in either the first or second reading,” says the official statement of the united opposition Batkivshchyna. “Such a law simply does not exist. Violations of the Constitution and regulatory norms and procedures were so "It is glaring that there is no legal basis for considering this stack of papers to be a legislative act." In addition, yesterday, people's deputy Yuriy Odarchenko (BYuT-Batkivshchyna) filed a lawsuit with the District Administrative Court of Kyiv demanding that the adoption of this regulatory act be declared illegal.

It is noteworthy that yesterday the opposition did not announce the preparation of street protests like those that took place in early July on European Square. “A hunger strike is not an adequate response. We cannot rush headlong and say - tomorrow we will go out and something will happen. We must think and find an appropriate solution,” Andrei Mokhnyk, deputy chairman of the Svoboda party, told Kommersant. But I can state one thing: Litvin signed, and now it’s his problem. We will provide him with these problems.”

Sergey Sidorenko

Newspaper "Kommersant Ukraine" No. 122 dated 01.08.2012, page 1

Authors:

Sergey Sidorenko

Themes:

Language policy

Hands reached the tongue