There was nothing amazing about the extraordinary session on July 30, held in the middle of parliament's summer break.
Many
expected further debacle over the controversial language law elevating the
status of Russia and a possible firing of parliament speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn,
who until recently refused to sign the bill.
Instead the
day was focused on economic issues. The pro-presidential majority approved a Hr
231 million ($28 million) increase in spending on heat insulation,
significantly raised the threshold of state guarantees on external loans, and
passed other economic bills.
Parliament
also ratified a free trade zone agreement with the Moscow-led Commonwealth of
Independent States.
The
decision appears to signal that Ukraine, after falling out with the European
Union, is telling Moscow it is ready for economic concessions, said Ihor Kohut,
head of Laboratory of Legislative Initiatives, a Kyiv-based think tank.
While Party
of Regions lawmakers claim the extraordinary session of parliament was urgently
needed, opposition figures and experts cast doubts on the whole affair.
Ostap
Semerak, opposition lawmaker, says that the purpose of adopting that
legislation was “to obtain, discretely, some additional financial privileges
[for their cronies].”
“For them
[Party of Regions], the language law is part of their electoral campaign, which
is why this session was not meant to make any decisions [on this topic],” he
explained.
“That’s why
that morning the budget committee convened, and then they voted for laws that
take money out of the budget, solely for the purpose of financing their
election campaign and financing their families,” he claimed.
Oleksandr
Zholud, economic analyst at the Kyiv-based International Сenter for Policy
Studies, also suspects this might be an election stunt to please the electorate
ahead of the Oct. 28 vote.
The analyst
says the legislation adopted on July 30 was not urgent, as it could have as
well been adopted a month from now.
“On top of
the popular social spending, a free trade agreement with the CIS might satisfy
pro-Russian aspirations of the electorate [of Party of Regions and
communists],” he said.
Kyiv
Post staff writer Yuriy Onyshkiv can be reached at [email protected] and Jakub Parusinski can be reached
at [email protected]
