Ukrainian members of parliament are overwhelmed by a “legislative tsunami,” according to former President of the European Parliament, Pat Cox.
Cox, who headed a European Union team tasked with proposing ways to strengthen the Ukrainian parliament, is in Kyiv to discuss how to implement his recommendations with Ukrainian lawmakers.
Addressing this tidal wave is one of his top priorities.
Of the 1,999 pieces of legislation proposed by members of parliament over the year to October 2015, the report found that 626 were debated and only 140 were adopted. This piecemeal approach to passing laws ties up the resources of the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, and distracts it from grappling with more important matters.
“There needs to be a realization that not every bill was made to become a law,” Cox said.
He pointed to three ways to quickly reduce the number of private members bills debated by parliament. Firstly, throw out anything that is not consistent with the constitution, secondly remove any proposals that are not budget neutral, and finally do not debate anything that is inconsistent with the EU trade and political association agreement.
“That should go some way towards holding back the tide.” Cox said.This was just one of the 52 recommendations that the European Parliament made in its report, published in February, entitled “On internal reform and capacity-building for the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.”Another key recommendation of the report is the proposal to improve the professionalism of parliament’s non-political staff.
Cox criticized what he perceived to be an old-fashioned approach to management. “The Verkhovna Rada needs to move away from the old command-and-control system to a system of delegation with managerial accountability,” he said.
The Secretary General of the European Parliament and the Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada signed an agreement on administrative reform in March.
The agreement, which is the first of its kind for the European parliament, is aimed at strengthening human resources, professional development, public engagement and information technology.
Cox hopes that reforming the administrative sector would give staff more confidence to propose good ideas and to challenge their managers when they do not agree.
Together with other representatives from the European parliament, he will hold a seminar on the reform proposals with the leaders of the main political groupings in the Ukrainian parliament. This will form the first in a series of meetings that should ultimately result in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Verkhovna Rada and the Ukrainian government.
