Unit summary
436 draft laws registered. Of which:
- 4 (0.9%) European integration draft laws.
- 12 (3%) draft laws on the consent or denunciation of international treaties.
- 3 (0.7%) urgent draft laws.
108 draft laws were adopted in their entirety. Of which:
- 12 (11.1%) European integration draft laws.
- 14 (13%) laws on ratification of international treaties.
- 3 (2.8%) laws were identified by the President as urgent.
The 12th session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine was marked by relatively low legislative activity. With 436 draft laws registered, this is the second-lowest number of draft laws registered per session. The decrease in the number of initiatives is not a negative phenomenon in itself if it indicates a focus on the quality of legislative acts. During the 12th session, the share of draft laws with 8–22 signatories increased, which partly indicates a decrease in legislative spam. However, there are also indicators that show that the problem of legislative spam is still relevant. The Restoration of Ukraine group demonstrated very high activity: one MP of the group accounts for almost five registered draft laws (five times more than for other factions and groups), and their share of the total number of draft laws reaches 20.4%, which puts them in second place after the Servant of the People (43.6%) in terms of legislative activity. At the same time, not a single draft law of the Restoration of Ukraine group was adopted in the course of the 12th session.
Registered draft laws
436 draft laws were registered during the 12th session, 28 fewer than in the previous autumn, the 10th session. Overall, the 12th session had the second-fewest registered draft laws (the 8th session had the most, with 385 draft laws). This result continues the gradual decrease in the number of registered draft laws that began in the 9th session. This demonstrates a potential reduction in the volume of legislative spam or at least a decrease in legislative activity.
Four European integration draft laws A European integration law is one recognised by the Committee on European Integration as the “EU integration” law. It has a corresponding label in the electronic system and is sent to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine for additional examination. were registered during the 12th session. This is slightly less than 1% of all registered draft laws.
12 draft laws on the consent or denunciation of international treaties were registered in the 12th session. This is 3% of all registered draft laws.
Four urgent draft laws were registered during the 12th session. This is 0.7% of all registered draft laws.
Registered draft laws by initiator
*For the sake of simplicity, the term “initiator” is hereinafter used in such tables. This is true when it comes to the government or the President. VRU factions do not have the right of legislative initiative, so when it comes to factions, it should be understood as the faction or group to which the first signatory (initiator) among the MPs belongs.
The indicators of the 12th session are quite standard and similar to those of the 10th and 11th sessions for the majority of factions and groups, as well as for the Cabinet of Ministers. Minority factions (European Solidarity, Fatherland, and Holos) and non-factional MPs registered 7–24 draft laws. However, compared to the 11th session, the share of draft laws from Holos and European Solidarity decreased, while the share of draft laws from Fatherland increased. Three groups (For the Future, Dovira and PFLP) registered less than 7 draft laws each.
At the same time, the following features are worth noting:
- The President and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine demonstrate a decrease in the share of registered draft laws compared to the 11th session. The share of draft laws initiated by the President returned to the same level as in the 8th, 9th and 10th sessions.
- The performance of the Restoration of Ukraine group continues to deviate from the general trend. During the 12th session, the group once again set a record by increasing the share of registered draft laws to 20.4%. That is, members of the Restoration of Ukraine group registered every fifth draft law registered during the 12th session. This trend has been going on for the fourth session in a row (it started in the 8th session). Thus, despite the small number of MPs, the Restoration of Ukraine has outpaced most factions and groups, as well as the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. The increase in the share of draft laws registered by the minority group of MPs to the point where the group registers almost every fifth draft law in the parliament is a sign of legislative spam, i.e., the registration of many low-quality draft laws that have no real prospect of being adopted.
- The Holos faction demonstrates a significant decrease in the share of registered draft laws in the 12th session. These are the lowest figures for the faction in the entire 9th convocation. A significant decrease in the faction’s legislative activity cannot be explained by a decrease in the number of its members (only one MP left the Holos faction during the 12th session).
- The Servant of the People faction slightly increased the share of registered draft laws, showing a 4% increase compared to the 11th session. Thus, the Servant of the People broke the downward trend of the previous four sessions.
The authorship of the draft law was determined by the initiator’s factional affiliation. For MPs, the first signatory of the draft law is considered the initiator. This method has its limitations, but it is used, in particular, by the VRU Secretariat. In addition, Article 90(3) of the Rules of Procedure explicitly defines the MP whose signature appears first as the initiator of a draft law.
The number of registered draft laws per MP It is worth noting that the number of draft laws per MP does not indicate the efficiency of factions or groups. It is rather an indicator that allows for a better understanding of the general trends in the Verkhovna Rada’s work. The number of draft laws registered by specific MPs is deliberately not given here, as they often perceive it as an indicator of their efficiency. This encourages them to register more draft laws, neglecting the quality, which is one reason for legislative spam. for the majority of factions and groups in the 12th session shows a non-standard situation for the 9th convocation. The overall decrease in the number of draft laws was manifested in the fact that, unlike in most sessions, now there is sometimes significantly fewer than 1 draft law per MP who is a member of any faction. This is especially evident in the case of the Holos faction, which has an average of 0.35 draft laws per MP. This figure is even lower It is logical to assume that legislative drafting in parties forming factions is better established than in groups formed by majoritarian MPs due to the existing stable organisational structure and the possibilities of establishing the work of the parliamentary association as a subject of the right of legislative initiative. This obviously affects the ability to develop group draft laws. for MPs belonging to parliamentary groups. The Restoration of Ukraine group continues to be the most prolific, with an unusually high rate of 4.94 draft laws per MP for the 9th convocation. Despite the relatively lower figure for the 12th session compared to the three previous sessions, the Restoration of Ukraine group has at least 5.5 times more draft laws per MP than any other faction or group during this session. This number of draft laws per MP is another sign of legislative spam. At the same time, these figures indicate that the record total share of registered draft laws by the MPs of the Restoration of Ukraine group is due to the low performance of other factions and groups, and not to the increased activity of the members of this parliamentary group.
Registered draft laws by group of signatories
In terms of the number of signatories to draft laws, the 12th session continued the downward trend in the number of draft laws with 1 initiator, a large number of which indirectly indicated the presence of legislative spam. The share of draft laws with 1 signatory decreased compared to the 10th and 11th sessions. Instead, all shares of all other groups of draft laws showed a slight increase. This may indicate a higher level of cooperation between MPs and, accordingly, a slightly higher quality of draft laws. Moreover, unlike in the two previous sessions, the number of draft laws with one signatory is not the largest; it is equal to the share of draft laws with 8–22 signatories.
In this section of parliamentary monitoring, the authors assume that a larger number of signatories correlates positively with better elaboration of draft laws, a higher level of consensus, and a decrease in legislative spam.
The draft law on changing the names of local general courts No. 12351 of 23 December 2024 has the most signatories, namely 72.
Laws adopted
108 laws 109 draft laws were technically adopted during the 12th session. However, draft law No. 11150 of 4 April 2024, “Proposals of the President of Ukraine to the Law on Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Protecting the Interests of Owners of Land Shares (Stakes), and Application of Administrative Procedure in the Field of Land Relations,” was adopted after a second veto in the 12th session. This draft law is not included in this monitoring report, as its passing and first adoption after the veto were mentioned in the monitoring report of the 11th session of the VRU. were adopted in their entirety during the 12th session. This is a relatively low figure for the 9th convocation. At the same time, it is a relatively good indicator compared to the previous autumn session (10), since the number of adopted draft laws increased by 44. Moreover, the ratio of adopted to registered draft laws in the 12th session is the same as in the 11th, so we can say that there are no new difficulties with adopting laws similar to those in the 10th session.
12 European integration A European integration law is one recognised by the Committee on European Integration as the “EU integration” law. It has a corresponding label in the electronic system and is sent to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine for additional examination. laws were adopted during the 12th session. This is 11.1% of all laws passed.
During the 12th session, the Verkhovna Rada passed 14 laws on granting consent to international treaties. This is 13% of all laws passed. All international draft laws were ratifications and accessions to new agreements (without denunciations). There were 10 multilateral agreements and 5 bilateral agreements out of 14 treaties ratified by the Verkhovna Rada during the 12th session. Among all these agreements, most were ratified with France (3 agreements) and the EU (2 agreements).
Three draft laws (2.8%) adopted during the 12th session were identified by the President of Ukraine as urgent.
The President vetoed (and submitted his proposals) draft laws five times. One draft law was adopted after a second veto.
Laws passed by initiator
The monitoring of the 12th session revealed several observations:
First, MPs of the Servant of the People faction slightly increased their share of all adopted draft laws (43.5%) compared to the 11th session (42.3%). This figure is fairly typical for the Servant of the People when considering the period of martial law.
Second, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine shows a gradual decrease in the share of initiated laws for the second session in a row. At the same time, if we analyse the entire 9th convocation, the government’s performance is quite high, as the Cabinet of Ministers initiates almost every third law. Of course, this is a bit less than their record-breaking performance during the 9th session. However, it is much higher than in the previous autumn (10th) session. The share of adopted laws initiated by the President of Ukraine also decreased (14.8%) compared to the results of the 11th session (16.8%), when the President initiated the largest share of laws during the period of martial law.
Third, the share of laws initiated by minority faction and non-factional MPs did not exceed 12% in total, while this value did not exceed 3.7% for each individual faction.
Interestingly, not a single law initiated by representatives of parliamentary groups was passed during the 12th session. This confirms the thesis about the signs of legislative spam in the context of the Restoration of Ukraine group.
Laws passed by groups of signatories
The 12th session partially continued the positive trends of the previous sessions (of which the 10th session is a standout). Compared to the previous 11th session, the share of adopted laws with 8–22 signatories has increased significantly, accounting for almost half of all draft laws passed. At the same time, there was a significant increase in the number of draft laws with one signatory and a decrease in the number of those with 23+ signatories, while 70% of the adopted laws had more than eight signatories. In other words, draft laws with a large number of signatories have a better chance of becoming law than those with a small number of signatories.
The Law on Peculiarities of Regulating Business Activities of Certain Types of Legal Entities and Their Associations in the Transition Period No. 6013 of 9 September 2021, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on 9 January 2025, has the most signatories, namely 131.
| Groups by the number of signatories – MPs for adopted laws | Number of laws submitted by MPs (percentage of total MPs’ laws) |
| 1 | 5 (8.5%) |
| 2–3 | 6 (10.2%) |
| 4–7 | 7 (11.9%) |
| 8–22 | 29 (49.2%) |
| 23+ | 12 (20.3%) |
