All-Ukrainian referendum, Bureau of Economic Security, bill on SSU, elections of university rectors, and parliamentary service: Rada passed new laws

The first plenary week of this year was productive for the Verkhovna Rada. MPs adopted a draft bill on the All-Ukrainian referendum, launched the creation of the parliamentary service, passed in the first reading a bill on the SSU, created the Bureau of Economic Security, and started amending the procedure of rectorial elections.

Status: passed by the Parliament, awaits to be signed or vetoed by the President.

Who is affected: Ukrainian citizens, government bodies, local governments, MPs, the Cabinet, and the President.

What does the law change:

• the All-Ukrainian referendum procedure is established
• a referendum can be held on the following matters:
• alteration of the territory of Ukraine
• approval of changes to chapters 1, 3, and 13 of the Constitution. These chapters regulate general constitutional principles, elections, referendums, and the procedure of changing the Constitution
• expiration of a law or some of its provisions
• other issues of state importance
• a referendum cannot be held on the following matters:
• liquidation of the independence of Ukraine
• violation of the territorial indivisibility
• tax or budget draft bills
• matters recognized by the Constitution and the laws as a jurisdiction of the courts or law enforcement agencies, in particular questions concerning amnesty.
• the Parliament can also pass a law to allow online voting.

What is right:

• a tool of direct democracy has been introduced. The right for a referendum is acknowledged in many developed democracies and guaranteed by the Constitution of Ukraine
• restrictions on subject matters that can be decided by referendum should prevent using referendums to change the Constitution or liquidate the independence of the state.

What is wrong:

• referendums can be dangerous considering the ongoing war of Russia against Ukraine, occupation of a part of Ukraine’s territory, and oligarch-owned media. The aggressor can use its agents, oligarchs can use their media to manipulate and distort public opinion in order to influence the results of referendums
• Brexit has demonstrated that without a proper informational campaign and measures taken by the state to protect its information space referendums can cause political crises.

Voted for the bill: Servant of the People faction (219 MPs), groups For the Future (1) and Trust (14), independents (8).

Status: adopted in the first reading. MPs still have time to revise the bill.

Who is affected: employees of the Apparatus of the Verkhovna Rada, MPs, heads of parliamentary committees, the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, and the Cabinet.

What does it change:

• parliamentary servants will no longer be a part of the general system of civil service
• the Head of the Apparatus and their deputies will be selected by the Verkhovna Rada’s own contest committee, the Head of the Apparatus will be dependent on the Speaker
• the Head of the Apparatus will have the authority to define special requirements for all positions within the parliamentary service.

What is wrong:

• parliamentary servants do not have any specific functions that make it necessary to separate them from the general system of civil service
• the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada will have powerful leverage over the Head of the Apparatus, who is supposed to be professional, apolitical, and work not for the Speaker but the state and ensure high-quality work of the legislator
• the right of the Head of the Apparatus to define special requirements for the candidates will significantly restrict citizens’ right to participate in competitions for positions in the parliamentary service.

Why it is important: after the Revolution of Dignity, civil service reform was one of the most important. Its purpose was to appoint candidates via open and transparent competitions.

Voted for the bill: factions Servant of the People (212 MPs), Opposition Platform — For Life (21), Batkivshchyna (18), and Holos (16), groups For the Future (12) and Trust (10), independents (12).

For more details on the shortcomings of the bill, please read our article.

Status: passed by the Parliament, awaits to be signed or vetoed by the President.

Who is affected: businesses, Ukrainian citizens, the Security Service of Ukraine, other law enforcement agencies and government bodies.

What does the law change: creates the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine (BES), which is supposed to:

detect and assess risks and threats to the economic security of the state and find ways to eliminate them

• prevent, detect, stop, and investigate crimes that present danger to the economy of the state.

What is wrong:

goals of the Bureau of Economic Security are the same as the goals of the Security Service department of economic protection. Western partners, Ukrainian business and experts for years argue that the SSU department has to be dissolved because of corruption and illegal harassment against businesses. The BES will become a worthy successor to the economic department and will have the same shortcomings

the BES will have both powers of the interrogatory and pre-trial investigation and thus be able to open cases arbitrarily. That goes against the state policy to divide these powers between different bodies (e.g., the State Bureau of Investigations has been created to give it the power to investigate cases of special importance)

• the BES has powers of both security service and law enforcement agency. That is not common in developed democracies. The fact that the BES has the authority to oversee the whole economy and only the essential economic enterprises makes it a totalitarian body for controlling the economy
• future BES Director will be selected under the unconstitutional procedure: according to the bill, selection committee members will be appointed by the National Security and Defense Council and the Parliament, although the Constitution does not grant them such authority.

Voted for the bill: factions Servant of the People (201 MPs) and Holos (16), groups For the Future (3) and Trust (17), independents (5).

Status: passed by the Parliament, awaits to be signed or vetoed by the President.

Who is affected: businesses, Ukrainian citizens, the Security Service of Ukraine, other law enforcement agencies and government bodies, and the President.

What does the law change:

• the Security Service of Ukraine will no longer have the uncharacteristic powers to interfere with economic issues and fight against corruption
• the SSU will no longer have investigative powers
• the number of Security Service employees will be decreased.

What is right:

• the SSU now has to focus on counterintelligence — and that should have been its sole priority from the beginning
• the SSU will not have uncharacteristic functions and powers.

What is wrong:

• after taking away the SSU’s powers to interfere with businesses and fight against corruption, the Parliament de facto transferred these powers to the newly-created Bureau of Economic Security. Thus, the problem of SSU’s undue influence on the economy was not solved but just shifted to another agency
• the overstaffed general services department of the Service has not been dissolved. The department provides services to the SSU and its establishments (resorts, kindergartens, polyclinics, etc.). It is doubtful that the Service has to have such an organizational unit.

Voted for the bill: factions Servant of the People (200 MPs), Opposition Platform — For Life (19), European Solidarity (2), and Holos (17), groups For the Future (4) and Trust (17), independents (6).

Status: adopted in the first reading. MPs still have time to revise the bill.

Who is affected: university students, lecturers, professors, employees and heads of higher education establishments.

What does the bill change:

• if no rectorial candidate gets enough votes in the first round of the election, the second round is held where the candidate which gets more votes wins
• if the election is invalid, no candidate gets enough votes, or the winner fails the special check, a new competition is announced.

Why this is important: according to the current procedure, rectorial candidates have to get support from over 50% of persons with a right to vote. Because of this requirement, Kyiv-Mohyla Academy has already twice failed to elect its president. The Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv has also faced a similar problem.

What is right: the bill solves the problem when it is impossible to elect the head of a higher education establishment due to low turnout.

Voted for the bill: all factions and groups (335 MPs).

What else:

• the Parliament allowed foreign military units on the territory of Ukraine to participate in military exercises (4499). More details are available in our previous digest
• draft bill on rules of procedure for the Constitutional Court (4533) was sent back to the committee for revision. More details are available in our digest of January 15, 2021.