Transparent stakeholder participation in public policy-making is among the basic values of a democratic state.
Public participation in lawmaking is possible in different formats: for example, the Cabinet of Ministers holds consultations with the public, Verkhovna Rada committees form working groups with the involvement of experts, etc.
One of the lesser-known instruments of interaction between the state and citizens is the national discussion, a mechanism inherited from the Soviet era. National discussions of state and party documents were actively practised in the Soviet Union after World War II, but they could hardly be considered an effective democratic tool. In the conditions of a totalitarian state, the results of such discussions were quite predictable and, inter alia, had an ideological impact.
Of course, it is important to involve the public, but this process should be open, efficient and transparent. The national discussion hardly meets these criteria, and we will explain why.
National discussion: What is the procedure?
On 11 February 2025, the Verkhovna Rada decided to submit the draft law for national discussion. This honour was given to the draft law No. 12260, “On Credit History.” According to its initiator, MP Olha Vasylevska-Smahliuk, the draft law would eliminate the shortcomings of the current legislation and replace the Law of Ukraine “On Organisation, Formation and Circulation of Credit Histories” adopted in 2005.
The Main Committee Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy. supported the draft law and recommended that the Verkhovna Rada adopt it in the first reading as a basis. However, during the parliamentary consideration, there were not enough votes even to send it for repeated first reading or return it to the author for revision. As a last resort, the draft law was sent for national discussion with 226 votes, the minimum number of votes required to make a decision.
This possibility is envisaged by Article 114 of the Rules of Procedure of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, which stipulates that following the consideration of a draft law in the first reading, the Verkhovna Rada may make one of the following decisions:
1) adopt the draft law as a basis with an instruction to the main committee to prepare it for the second reading;
2) reject the draft law;
3) return the draft law for revision or submit it to the main committee for preparation for repeated first reading;
4) publish the draft law for national discussion, revise it by the main committee with due regard to the results of the discussion and submit it for repeated first reading.
The Rules of Procedure do not generally provide a detailed description of the procedure for submitting a draft law for national discussion, but Article 115(2) requires that a separate resolution of the Verkhovna Rada determine the timeframe for submitting a draft law for repeated first reading, regarding which a decision on national discussion has been made. However, the adopted resolution does not specify such a timeframe. The Law of Ukraine “On Committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine” obliges committees to summarise comments and proposals received during the national discussion of draft laws when performing their drafting function. However, neither the VRU Rules of Procedure nor the Law of Ukraine “On Committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine” define a detailed procedure of a national discussion, its stages, its participants, and their rights and obligations. The Regulations on the Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine stipulate that it keeps records and summarises proposals and comments received on draft legislative acts published for national discussion, effectively duplicating the committee’s powers.
Everything new is well-forgotten old
Where did the rule on national discussion of draft laws come from? Obviously, we inherited it from the Soviet regime. The USSR actively used national discussion as a way to legitimise its decisions. Between 1956 and 1985, the USSR held discussions on more than 30 draft regulations of various levels Abstracts of reports and directives adopted by the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers. . This procedure was first enshrined in the Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR of 1978, which stated that “the most important issues of state life shall be submitted for national discussion.” The procedure was regulated The Law does not apply on the territory of Ukraine in accordance with the Law of Ukraine 'On De-Sovietisation of the Legislation of Ukraine' No. 2215-IX dated 21.04.2022. by the relevant Law of the Ukrainian SSR, “On Public Discussion of Important Issues of State Life of the Ukrainian SSR.”
This procedure is not new to Ukrainian politics after independence. In 1992, a draft of the new Constitution of Ukraine was put up for national discussion, and draft amendments to the Constitution were put up for discussion in 2003 and 2009 at the initiative of the President.
In 2006, the new Rules of Procedure of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine were adopted in connection with the amendments to the Ukrainian Constitution. It enshrined the possibility of submitting a draft law for national discussion, which has been incorporated into all subsequent rules of procedure almost unchanged and is still in force today.
Previous attempt
One of the most famous cases of using the national discussion procedure took place during the adoption of the Tax Code. On 15 June 2010, the Government registered a draft Tax Code in the Verkhovna Rada, which MPs adopted as a basis two days later. Given the adverse public reaction, the Parliament adopted a resolution on a national discussion of the draft Tax Code of Ukraine on 8 July 2010, which, however, authorised the Cabinet of Ministers:
- first, to ensure that the draft code is made public and that there are conditions for national discussion,
- second, to summarise the discussion results and submit them to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
While considering the draft code at the plenary session, the then Speaker of the Rada, Volodymyr Lytvyn, admitted that “the material efforts of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to discuss this issue will not be enough.” Some MPs, however, stressed that the draft Tax Code should not be sent for national discussion by a separate decision of the Verkhovna Rada but only after consideration in the first reading (while the draft Tax Code had already been adopted as a basis). In addition, the draft law was sent to the Government with MPs’ proposals and amendments for the second reading.
Two months later, on 8 September 2010, the Government reported on the results of the national discussion and, a few days later, introduced a new draft Tax Code that – at least, the explanatory note says so – took into account the results of the national discussion and was subsequently adopted by the Verkhovna Rada.
Is a national discussion really necessary?
The situation with draft law No. 12260 is more like an attempt to avoid rejecting the draft law. Unlike the Tax Code, it did not receive widespread attention or a strong adverse reaction from society. The accompanying documents do not contain information on the need for discussion or any consultations, and the main committee recommended that the draft law be adopted as a basis rather than sent for national discussion. In addition, the committee responsible for preparing the draft law for a repeated first reading is not obliged to report on the results of the discussion, which may lead to abuse, meaning that there is no need to justify the grounds on which some proposals and comments will be taken into account, and others will be rejected.
In general, the national discussion of the draft law seems to be an ineffective mechanism for engaging citizens in decision-making, as the criteria and procedures for holding it and processing the results are unclear. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to discuss the impact of national discussions of draft laws, primarily because the practice was sporadic, and the rules were not established.
