Tuesday, March 10, 2015

The spring of reforms is ahead for Ukraine

"Ukraine is determined to hold reforms. In the next three months we must demonstrate clear steps on their implementation," Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Dmytro Shymkiv noted following the meeting of the National Council of Reforms.

The National Council of reforms has paid significant attention to the legislative guarantees of reforms. Chairman of Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Groysman has presented a draft Plan on legislative guarantees of reforms in Ukraine, which will be submitted for discussion and approval by the factions of Verkhovna Rada. "This plan will allow systemizing the legislative work and increasing the quality of adopted decisions. This plan can become a basis for the actions of ministries on elaboration of legislative initiatives," Dmytro Shymkiv said.

The importance of adopting draft law № 2085 on the increase of liability of bank owners has been emphasized. The Cabinet of Ministers is planning to submit the draft law "On Civil Service" supported by the international experts for consideration by the Parliament by March 19. Working groups on constitutional reform, electoral legislation and public procurement will have been established by March 11. The importance of these reforms has been emphasized by the European community. "These reforms are one of the most important in the process of implementation of the Association Agreement with the EU," Dmytro Shymkiv noted.

The National Council has endorsed the proposal on cooperation with the international experts that offered consultative assistance in the elaboration of the plan of actions and holding of reforms in such spheres like liberalization of domestic prices for energy resources, subsidy reform, energy efficiency, integration in the European gas networks, national gas production and restructuration of the NJSC "Naftogaz of Ukraine".

The Prime Minister has invited the President to contact the national regulator regarding the simplification of the rules of connection to the electric networks. Particularly,  this procedure significantly affects Ukraine's positions in the ease of doing business ranking of the World Bank.

The work of the Anti-Trust Committee has been discussed as well. "The IMF demands to implement the reform of anti-trust legislation by the end of the first half of 2015," D. Shymkiv said.


Dmytro Shymkiv has also informed that the President had submitted to Verkhovna Rada draft law №2299 on appeals and petitions, which provides for the opportunity of citizens to appeal to the state bodies via e-mail and create petitions on the website of the President. "We have already begun technical work to implement the opportunity of petitions on the website of the Ukrainian President," Dmytro Shymkiv noted.

The Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration has emphasized that the given draft law met the recommendations of the European community. It has been elaborated by experts and civil society with the support of the UN and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.

The next step will be the reformation of electronic digital signature and trust functions. "This will bring the Ukrainian legislation closer to the European standards," he said.

It is also planned to open registers and establish electronic interaction between the information resources.

The President has set a task to accelerate the introduction of electronic procurement. Dmytro Shymkiv has reminded that on February 12, the pilot of electonic public procurement system PROZORRO had started functioning. The State Affairs 

Department, the Ministries of Justice, Defense and Economy, as well as the NNEGC Energoatom have already started using it. Today, the use of this system allows these agencies to save from 10 to 25 percent of public funds in the course of subthreshold procurement.

The Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration has also informed that the President and the Prime Minister have set a task to switch to subthreshold procurement in every ministry or agency. Simultaneously, bills that will allow using this system for other types of procurement should be prepared.

Also, the National Council of Reforms has considered the presentation of the Plan of implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau. The report has been presented by member of the Georgian Parliament and Georgian expert group "Innovations Development Foundation" Giorgi Vashadze. The plan provides for step-by-step actions since the appointment of the Head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau. It will accelerate the beginning of functioning of this extremely important structure. Dmytro Shymkiv has conveyed the words of the President that there had been no precedent of such project approaches in Ukraine and conveyed the President's request to delegate the representatives of parliamentary factions and groups to examine the results of the group's work and create public and regulatory support to the activity of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau.

The President has set a task to adopt the law on State Investigation Bureau by April and asked the MPs to facilitate the given process.
The next session of the National Council of Reforms will consider the issue of energy independence and the reform of the NJSC "Naftogaz of Ukraine".

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