Editor's Note: The Kyiv Post tracks the progress made by Ukraine's post-EuroMaidan Revolution leaders in making structural changes in the public interest in six key areas: economy & finance, security & defense, energy, rule of law, public administration and land. The following measures were in focus on July 17 - 23.
Overview
The spring parliament session ended on July 17. Although parliament might reconvene to pass legislation during the summer break, the chances are that laws on important issues like civil service and public procurement will have to wait until the autumn session starts on Sept. 1.
While the spring session saw a record number of 3,568 bills registered, “amendments to already passed laws constituted almost 80 percent of parliament’s agenda,” said Oksana Syroyid, a deputy chairman of the parliament.
Apart from controversial bills on decentralization and local elections, parliament favored quick wins over conceptual reforms. “We now have a neat 2,000 strong patrol police force (in Kyiv), whom people trust… but we lost out on the conceptual reform of the militsia (militia), which is a 150,000-strong force,” said Olena Sotnyk, a lawmaker in the Samopomich party. She also said that parliament lost the fight for making the special anti-corruption prosecutor independent.
The Reanimation Package of Reforms civic initiative gave reforms in anti-corruption and law enforcement a combined score of five out of ten points. It only awarded three points to public administration, constitutional and judicial reforms.
Reform of the electoral law received a mere two points, as proportional representation with so called open lists will not be introduced until parliamentary elections in 2019, and overall reform of the electoral law was postponed until the end of 2017.
Economy & finance
The International Monetary Fund is expected to approve a $1.7 billion loan installment for Ukraine at its board meeting on July 31. The European Union on July 22 provided Ukraine with the first €600 million installment of a €1.8 billion loan.
The European Investment bank on July 23 gave Ukraine a €400 million loan to overhaul district heating infrastructure.
Rule of law
Ukraine’s State Ecology Inspection will be closed and recreated from scratch due to rampant corruption, Deputy Prime Minister Valeriy Voshchevsky said on July 20. “The Inspection is not performing its duties… Almost all decisions are influenced by corruption,” Voshchevsky said.
A replacement body will be created in less than two months, with young specialists “able to manage their work in such a way that we will forget entirely that an ecology inspector could take a bribe,” Voshchevsky added.
Security & defense
On July 17, parliament provided the armed forces with an extra Hr 5 billion. The sum was provided by enforcing budget cuts in all other spheres of government. The extra money allows the daily amount available for food to be raised from Hr 30 to Hr 58.
Parliament toughened punishments for violating procedures for moving goods to or from the war zone. According to an explanatory note in the January-April period alone, a total amount of more than Hr 36 million was illegally transferred, bypassing checkpoints.
Parliament has also adopted a bill on military-civil administrations that will stand in for local government institutions in the war zone. The new institutions will receive temporary powers to resolve urgent issues of local importance, said Artur Gerasymov from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc.
Public administration
Local elections are scheduled for Oct. 25 but won’t take place in annexed Crimea and in temporary occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts. In liberated areas, such as Shyrokyne or Sloviansk, elections are possible only pending a decision of the Central Election Commission and subject to Parliament’s approval.
To tackle corruption, some Ukrainian customs offices will be placed under the control of a U.K. company, according to Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. He said the company has experience in operating customs offices in Western countries without naming the firm.
On July 17, parliament approved a bill with a list of non-profit organizations and clarified tax rules for non-profits. The bill extended the rights of non-profit organizations to create unions, housing cooperatives, associations and other civic initiatives, a right they lost due to earlier amendments.
Parliament also resumed incentives for charity organizations that assist Ukrainian soldiers.
Energy
On July 17, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Ukraine has to increase energy production and launch energy saving programs if it is to meet the goal of energy self-reliance in less than 10 years.
“To accelerate this process, the government proposed a package of laws amending the rates and tariffs for extraction in the energy sector,” Yatsenyuk said. The 70 percent tax rate for joint activity agreements will remain untouched, he said. “However, any company willing to invest in Ukraine to increase gas extraction will obtain a preferential regime.”
