New rules of procedure for Constitutional Court, medical cannabis, and parliamentary service: new bills in Verkhovna Rada
15 January 2021
During the parliamentary recess, MPs have prepared and submitted a number of important draft bills that have the potential to change the balance of power, facilitate reforms, enhance the quality of life for people, and solve crisis situations. Today in our digest: new rules of procedure for the Constitutional Court, legalization of medical cannabis, and the parliamentary reform.
Rules of procedure for the Constitutional Court (4533)
Cosponsors: a group of MPs from Servant of the People faction with Denys Monastyrskyi as the first signatory, Dmytro Razumkov (the Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada), Ruslan Stefanchuk (the First Deputy Chairperson), Olena Kondratiuk (the Deputy Chairperson), MPs from Opposition Platform — For Life, Trust, and For the Future.
Who is affected: Ukrainian citizens, government bodies, local governments, the President, the Verkhovna Rada, the Cabinet, and the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
What does the bill change:
- defines core requirements for the work of the Constitutional Court, in particular for the procedure of constitutional proceedings, publication and enforcement of Court’s judgments
- creates a register of legal acts by the CCU — an information system for keeping all acts by the Constitutional Court: service documents, dissenting opinions of judges, judgments, conclusions, etc. Deletion of acts from the registry will be prohibited
- introduces an automated document management system to ensure objective, random, and impartial distribution of cases among judges.
What is right:
- detailed rules for the work of the CCU, clearly defined grounds for opening and closing proceedings, requirements for judgments and conclusions
- open access to legal acts by the CCU, oral proceedings as a primary mode of work of the CCU.
What is wrong:
- rules of procedure for the Constitutional Court and requirements for its documents should be defined by the Constitutional Court itself
- it is unclear what will happen if judges of the CCU decide to not abide by this draft bill. The judges can freely ignore or violate it since the bill does not provision any penalties.
Legalization of medical cannabis for medical, scientific, and industrial purposes (4553)
Cosponsors: MPs from Holos faction (Olha Stefanyshyna as the first signatory), several MPs from Servant of the People and European Solidarity factions.
Who is affected: people suffering from epilepsy, cancer-related diseases, post-traumatic stress disorder, people in need of palliative care, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, doctors, the Cabinet, and Ukrainian citizens.
What does the bill change:
- allows using cannabis (with up to 1% of psychoactive components) for medical, scientific, and industrial purposes
- introduces regulations on importing, exporting, shipping, distributing, and storing cannabis, defines the requirements for businesses that produce hemp
- defines the requirements for law enforcement agencies on control and prevention of illegal drug trade.
What is right:
- medical cannabis is legalized in at least 56 countries, including Austria, Israel, Germany, Norway, Poland, etc.
- people suffering from several kinds of diseases will be able to receive proper treatment and improve their mental condition
- additional revenue for the government budget, a better investment climate for the country
- more favorable conditions for businesses producing clothes, paper, fuels, etc.
Why this is important: at the moment, cannabis, extracts and infusions from it are classified as highly hazardous narcotic substances. To use or distribute them is a criminal offense.
Establishment of parliamentary service (3739)
Cosponsors: 131 MPs of different factions and groups with Dmytro Razumkov, the Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada, as the first signatory.
Who is affected: MPs, the Cabinet, and the Civil Service.
What does the bill change:
- creates a special service for the Parliament — the parliamentary service with the Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada as its de facto head
- competitions for the parliamentary service will be conducted by commissions formed by the Parliament
- parliamentary servants will be appointed by the Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada or the Head of the Apparatus. The civil service will have no influence over the parliamentary service
- procedures for the parliamentary service competitions will be approved by the Head of the Apparatus.
What is wrong:
- establishment of a separate parliamentary service undermines the idea of a unified system of civil service and goes against the civil service reform: the civil service has to be the same for all government bodies and maintain uniform standards (including competition procedures)
- the parliamentary service will be dependent on the Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada: the Speaker will have an influence on the Head of the Apparatus and, as a result, on the whole system of parliamentary service.
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