Authors of the draft law No6011 on anticorruption court initiated its withdrawal. President keeps shifting responsibility

Authors of the draft law No6011 on anticorruption court initiated its withdrawal. By doing this, the MPs followed recommendation of the Venice Commission and opened the way for the President to submit his draft law on anticorruption court.

According to the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament, since the draft law is already included into the agenda of Rada’s autumn session final decision on its withdrawal must be adopted by the Parliament. Therefore, now withdrawal of the draft law depends on political will of coalition factions.

MP from Poroshenko’s Block Serhiy Alekseev also withdrew his draft law on anticorruption judicial specialization (chambers) No6529.

In the meantime, the President is demonstrating the strategy of postponing development and adoption of the draft law on anticorruption court and is shifting responsibility for drafting the law to the Parliament and even the Venice Commission.

President’s official representative in the Rada Iryna Lutsenko continues to insist on development of the draft law through Parliamentary working group. Moreover, Lutsenko announced the plans to send President’s new draft law to the Venice Commission for reconsideration before its adoption in the first reading. Thus, the President of Ukraine eliminates the chance for this year adoption of the draft law on anticorruption court and therefore blocks its establishment for at least one year.

However, with regards to detailed recomendations of the Venice Commission, new opinion, which will take up to 3 months minimum, is not required. Coordination of the positions of political factions should take place according to the procedures for draft law’s second reading, as provided by the Rules of Procedure.

Organizers of the “Comprehensive Political Reform” campaign, including AntAC, called on the President of Ukraine to give up this tactics and announce the date of submission of his draft law to the Parliament. We also urged the Speaker Andriy Parubiy to avoid participating in the machinations and not to use the Venice Commission for blackmailing the MPs and political bargaining.