The Agency for Legislative Initiatives joined a meeting of Ukrainian civil society representatives with Pat Cox, former President of the European Parliament and Head of European Parliament’s Needs Assessment Mission to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Such meetings and discussions are dedicated to the next steps and priorities of parliamentary reform, which continues in the context of a full-scale war.
The internal reform of the Ukrainian parliament began back in 2016 with the launch of the European Parliament’s Needs Assessment Mission led by Pat Cox. The mission drafted a Roadmap with specific recommendations on how to strengthen the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine institutionally and address the existing problems of Ukrainian parliamentarism.
After the start of parliamentary reform, meetings with representatives of state institutions and civil society allow us to check the current processes and key priorities in the reform process. And, in particular, to convey important messages to the Ukrainian authorities in the context of the ongoing reforms.
The priority topics of this year’s meeting included the following issues:
- protecting state institutions from anti-democratic processes;
- preserving the agency of the parliament, which should be facilitated by the continuation of parliamentary reform;
- further implementation of the legislative impact assessment tool in the work of the Ukrainian parliament.
The Agency for Legislative Initiatives has always emphasised that ensuring the sustainability and capacity of the main democratic institution — the parliament — is a prerequisite for preserving the institutional potential of the state. Indeed, in the context of a full-scale war, it is impossible to continue parliamentary reform in a comprehensive manner, in particular, due to the restrictions established by the Constitution. However, the dynamics of the reform show that the Verkhovna Rada has already made progress in some of the blocks and recommendations of the Roadmap, and this trend should be maintained.
For reference. From the very beginning, the Agency for Legislative Initiatives has been supporting parliamentary reform and monitoring its implementation. According to the latest estimates of the ALI, the reform is 45.7% complete. The war has intensified the implementation of certain recommendations of the Roadmap for Internal Reform of the Verkhovna Rada, prepared by the European Parliament’s Needs Assessment Mission led by Pat Cox.
ALI analysed in detail where parliamentary reform is heading now in the Parliament Journal.
