On November 16, 2016, at 9:00, the Subcommittee on Energy Saving and Energy Efficiency of the Committee on Fuel and Energy Complex, Nuclear Policy and Nuclear Safety held a meeting where experts of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives presented a preliminary version of the shadow report on the fulfillment of the Activity Plan for the Implementation of the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan for 2020. The full version of the report will be released in early 2017.

The energy issue has already received the status of a «bottleneck» for the economic and social development of the country. This is reflected, inter alia, in rising energy prices. The continued irrational use of energy becomes even more evident against a background of increasing environmental damage. Therefore, people and businesses, as well as society at large, should have an interest in energy efficiency and the efficient use of natural resources.

Each Government of independent Ukraine has identified as one of the main priorities in its activities the need to solve the problems of increasing energy efficiency in the housing and communal sector. In their programs of action, they have identified ways of addressing these problems, devised relevant State programs, and defined a range of measures that have facilitated their implementation.

It is a tradition in our country that all problems of the State are solved primarily at the expense of the population, and the reforms that are carried out quite often become an unbearable burden for Ukrainians. This trend is particularly evident in the reform of the housing and communal sector.

The preparation and presentation of analytical reports in the Shadow Report format is part of the project embodied by the Agency for Legislative Initiatives, supported by the USAID Rada Program: Responsible Accountable Democratic Assembly, implemented by the East Europe Foundation.

To solve several pressing problems in the anti-corruption sector in the summer of 2015, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Law of Ukraine «On amendments to some legislative acts of Ukraine on strengthening transparency in property relations to prevent corruption» which entered into force on 6 October 2015. The law provides for the opening of State property registers, as well as access to information on the owners of registered vehicles, real property and land parcels from the State land cadastre.

The law has been in operation for almost a year, over a while, information on the property of officials has become public, which has made it much easier to detect signs of corruption, illicit enrichment, or attempts by officials to conceal property.

However, several problems remain in the operation of the Unified State Register of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the State Land Cadastre, and the State Register of Real Property Rights. In particular, these databases contain incomplete information on assets, as a large part of the documents is still not advertised, and records on transport registered before 2012 are not entered. There are problems in finding information and identifying the persons who own the property.

The preparation and presentation of analytical reports in the Shadow Report format is part of the project embodied by the Agency for Legislative Initiatives, supported by the USAID Rada Program: Responsible Accountable Democratic Assembly, implemented by the East Europe Foundation.

The report is devoted to the evaluation of progress in the implementation of the key reforms in higher education in Ukraine, which were defined by the new version of the law «On higher education» adopted in the summer of 2014. Research is being carried out on the development of a new system for ensuring the quality of higher education, developing the academic and financial autonomy of higher education institutions, and ensuring fair conditions for admission to higher education institutions, Integration of higher education in Ukraine into the European Educational and Scientific Area.

The publication examines progress in the implementation of relevant public policies in the two years between September 2014 (date of entry into force of the new law on higher education) and September 2016 and contains separate proposals for further necessary steps in this area.

The preparation and presentation of analytical reports in the Shadow Report format is part of the project embodied by the Agency for Legislative Initiatives, supported by the USAID Rada Program: Responsible Accountable Democratic Assembly, implemented by the East Europe Foundation.

Losing control over Crimea and part of Luhansk and Donetsk Regions, the Ukrainian Government has found its weakness and inefficiency in national security policy. Based on analysis of Government security measures during 2014–2015, budgeting strategy and current legislation regulating the security sector, this Policy Paper proposes an alternative strategy of public policy in the security sector. The authors claim that the prime aim of the modern reform is to institutionalize a united system of strategical analysis, forecasting, and planning in national security policy.

The authors of the study offer an alternative vision of public policy strategy in the security sector. In particular, the introduction of a unified system of strategic analysis, forecasting, and planning.

Authors of the study:

• Roman Nitsovych, Program Manager, DiXi Group Analytical Center;
• Andriy Datsyuk, Ph.D., Associate Professor of the Department of Global Studies, European Integration and National Security Management of NAPA;
• Rena Marutyan, Ph.D., Associate Professor of the Department of Global Studies, European Integration and National Security Management of NAPA;
• Valery Sadovsky, Reserve Major General, Member of the Public Council of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

The preparation of the analytical materials is a part of a project implemented by the NGO Agency of Legislative Initiatives with the support of USAID RADA Program: Responsible Accountable Democratic Assembly, implemented by East Europe Foundation.

In May 2014, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted amendments to the Law on Public Procurement, which significantly simplified procurement for law enforcement agencies. They were given the right to conduct purchase under a negotiated procedure, i.e., without an open tender. At the same time, the law did not provide the right to apply negotiation procedures to military units subordinated to law enforcement agencies. That is why a significant number of public procurements of military units are disrupted because they are held in open tenders, in which businesses do not want to take an active part.

The reluctance of business to participate in procurement has a negative impact on public procurement for the army because if less than two bidders participate in the bidding – bidding should be canceled. Low business motivation is associated with both corruption among customers and distrust of the state as a partner who does not fulfill signed contracts and does not pay bills.

At the same time, those competitions, which still end with the determination of the winner, last for months, which is unacceptable in war conditions. Procurement deadlines at the central level are much shorter, but they are also far from optimal. This is because even the negotiation procedure is carried out in the order that was developed for peacetime, and therefore is not adequate in wartime. After all, in the latter case, one of the key priorities is the speed of procurement, which the current procedure does not take into account.

The study analyzes the current state of public procurement in the field of defense; key stakeholders of the process are considered; the causes of systematic failure and delay of public procurement in the field of defense are investigated; the consequences of the problem, their scale and severity are considered; the state policy on the decision of a problem is analyzed; alternative solutions to the problem of disruption and delay of public procurement in the field of defense are offered.

The preparation and presentation of Policy Proposals is part of the project embodied by the Agency for Legislative Initiatives, supported by the USAID Rada Program: Responsible Accountable Democratic Assembly, implemented by the East Europe Foundation.

A number of Ukrainian experts completely agree with the criticism expressed in the report of the European Commission on the implementation of the European Neighborhood Policy in Ukraine for 2011. Coordinator of the Youkraine.eu platform Oleh Rybachuk said at a press conference hosted by Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday, May 17:

According to him, such reports are important evidence about how the European Union estimates the process of reform in Ukraine – they reflect the level and stage of the Ukraine’s integration and also take the temperature of Ukrainian-EU relations, to some extent.

At the same time, the coordinator noted that the assessment of the reforms dealing with democracy is a main criterion for the EU on how sincerely the country, which aspires to gain EU membership, actually desires it. According to him, authorities said that Association Agreement, Free Trade Area were more necessary for the EU, because the Ukrainian market is very attractive to the EU.

“Everything reflected in the report shows contradictory values,” he said adding that such issues as fair and free elections, respect of human rights, freedom of peaceful meetings, mass media freedom, justice independence, fighting corruption are important for the EU.

In turn, Chairman of Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Arkadiy Buschenko declared:

According to him, in recent years the situation with the human rights has worsened in Ukraine.

He stressed that the country still has a problem with judicial system and also added:

Talking about corruption, an expert from the Ukrainian Institute for Public Policy, Ivan Presniakov said the only successes were on paper.

In the report of the European Commission on the implementation of the European Neighborhood Policy in Ukraine, which was presented on May 15, EU highlighted the slow pace of the implementation of economic reforms, the worsening situation with democracy in Ukraine in 2011, and the absence of significant results in fighting corruption.

Source: https://www.kyivpost.com/news/politics/detail/127765/

Since the Orange Revolution of 2005, fighting corruption has been high on the political agenda in Ukraine. But Transparency International’s (TI) recently published National Integrity System assessment (NIS) shows little progress in halting the tide of corruption.Published by TORO, TI’s partner in Ukraine, the NIS assessment is a comprehensive analysis of the country’s anti-corruption system in law as well as in practice. Ukraine scores 2.4 in the 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index, which indicates widespread perceptions of corruption.

NIS assessments evaluate the key institutions and actors of a country’s governance system in terms of their internal corruption risks and their contributions to fighting corruption in society at large. When all the components of the National Integrity System function properly, corruption remains in check. Where there are gaps and weaknesses, corruption is likely to thrive.

The report shows that overall Ukraine’s integrity system is weak. The main political parties show little political will to tackle corruption through legal reforms or by addressing citizens’ concerns. There are four main areas of concern:

• Lack of financial and human resources to fight corruption
• Limited legal framework
• Limited enforcement
• Poor interaction between institutions

The one bright spot is the Supreme Audit Institution, which outperformed all other institutions primarily because it has sufficient resources, a will to promote transparency and close relationships with similar organisations in other countries.

The report features a number of key recommendations, including stricter party financing rules and electoral reforms.

The reform of political parties legislation and regulation can act as a platform from which to consider a wide array of crucial issues in the development of a stable and lasting democratic party system. These include, inter alia, political party financing, internal party democracy, the participation of women, registration and monitoring of political parties.

In partnership with the OSCE`s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and with the financial support of the European Union, Denys Kovryzhenko and his colleagues at the Agency for Legislative Initiatives (ALI), led an in-depth consultative process with key stakeholders in Ukraine on the issue of political party legislation reform, raising problems and proposing possible solutions.

The result is Regulation of Political Parties in Ukraine: the Current State and Direction of Reforms, a comprehensive report which thoroughly analyses the particular problems and issues in Ukraine’s legislative and regulatory framework for political parties. Looking forward, and based on the results of the consultations, the report proposes an agenda for reform based on international European standard and best practice.

This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union, within the framework of a joint project of the European Union and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).