organization:ukraine’s parliament

Ukraine finally passes anti-bias law, a prerequisite for visa-free travel to EU
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/kyiv-post-plus/ukrainian-finally-passes-anti-bias-law-a-prerequisite-for-visa-free-travel

In its third attempt in a week, Ukraine’s parliament passed amendments to the Labor Code on Nov. 12 that will end lingering Soviet-era workplace discrimination over sexual orientation, political and religious beliefs.

The law, which received the support of 234 lawmakers, was the most controversial bill in parliament among a package of anti-corruption and other legislation the European Union requires in its visa liberalization action plan.

The voting process has been excruciating, however, requiring six rounds of voting and frantic consultations before it finally passed. In the last unsuccessful vote, 219 lawmakers voted in favor, seven votes short of the 226 votes in the 423-seat parliament that are needed for a bill to pass. Parliament’s speaker Volodymyr Groysman then announced a 15-minute break for talks.

“Dear deputies: Seven votes stand between us and a visa-free regime,” Groysman said before calling the break.

Arguing in favor of the bill, Groysman after the break said that “the individual and his rights are at the foundation of our society.” He ensured that the anti-discrimination measure had no bearing on the broader issue of gay rights. “God forbid same-sex marriages in our country,” he said.

After the break, lawmakers returned to the vote, and managed to pass the bill at the first attempt. The extra votes needed were provided by the president’s faction, 108 of whom eventually voted for the bill, compared to 99 before the break, and by the prime minister’s faction, where 65 voted in favor as opposed to 62 before the break.

Parliament twice failed to pass the amendments in earlier voting: On Nov. 5 a similar measure garnered only 117 votes, while on Nov. 10 the draft bill gained 207 votes – still far short of the 226 votes that are needed for a bill to pass in the 423-seat parliament.

Ah ben, ça y est, le parlement a réussi à voter cette interdiction de discrimination. Mais de justesse et après une suspension de séance (et les remontées de bretelles qu’elle autorise).

Ukraine ’chooses homophobia over EU integration’
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/ukraine-chooses-homophobia-over-eu-integration-401535.html

Even after the European Union reminded Ukraine that a visa-free regime would depend on the adoption of certain human rights bills, Ukraine’s parliament on Nov. 5 failed to pass a landmark bill on discrimination – a move that activists say may scare Europe off for years to come.
[…]
The anti-discrimination bill submitted to parliament was prescribed in the EU-Ukraine Action Plan on visa liberalization. Not only did the legislation lay out protections for homosexuals; it also prohibited discrimination on the basis of skin color and religious belief.

But with a suspiciously large number of lawmakers absent during the vote and many abstentions, the bill failed to pass, with a mere 117 votes out of the required 226.

Political consultant Taras Beresovets said that even liberal lawmakers voted against, fearing that homophobic sentiment among voters might hurt their support.

Some lawmakers cited “Christian” or “conservative” values for their reluctance to vote for the anti-discrimination amendment to the Labor Code. Some argued that approval of the bill would lead to the legalization of gay marriage – a claim that drew indignation from gay rights and human rights activists.

Un mort et de nombreux policiers blessés devant le Parlement ukrainien
▻http://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2015/08/31/forte-explosion-devant-le-parlement-ukrainien-apres-le-vote-d-une-reforme-co

Au moins quatre-vingt-dix policiers ont été blessés par une explosion devant le Parlement ukrainien, à Kiev, lundi 31 août. Arsen Avakov, le ministre de l’intérieur de l’Ukraine, a annoncé qu’un des policiers était mort, après avoir reçu un fragment d’un engin explosif dans le cœur. La déflagration a eu lieu alors que des affrontements avaient lieu entre la police et des manifestants, qui protestaient contre l’adoption en première lecture par les députés d’un projet de loi controversé donnant davantage d’autonomie aux territoires de l’Est prorusse.

How to Make a Country Vanish: A Journey Inside Eastern Ukraine - Defense One
▻http://www.defenseone.com/threats/2015/07/how-make-country-vanish-journey-inside-eastern-ukraine/118255

This division between what natives of the Donetsk region now call “Ukraine” and their own statelet of the DPR, carved out by separatists last May and recognized by no one else, appears to be solidifying. Separatist-held areas—which before the war were home to around 4.5 million people—are still hurting from the Ukrainian government’s move last November to halt payments for pensions and public services in the region. The gulf appeared to widen further last week, when Ukraine’s parliament took a step toward changing the constitution to devolve more powers from the central government to the country’s eastern regions, as part of a ceasefire agreement signed in February in Minsk. But in eastern Ukraine itself, the move to decentralize power seemed almost irrelevant.
[…]
Across the Donetsk People’s Republic, traces of Ukraine were successfully being extinguished. Most Ukrainian businesses along the capital city’s birch-lined boulevards were fading into oblivion—shops shuttered, ATM screens and cell-phone top-up booths covered in a thick film of dust, untouched for months. Many foreign firms had also pulled out of the region due to security concerns. On the city’s yellow mailboxes, the Ukrainian word for “post”—poshta—had been changed to Russian—pochta—in crudely drawn marker, a divisive difference of one letter. Ukrainian license plates were gradually being replaced with ones belonging to the DPR. The Russian ruble, with its tributes to Czar Peter the Great and Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre, was omnipresent, fast replacing the Ukrainian hryvnia and its depiction of Kiev’s Saint Sophia Cathedral. In a sprawling, covered outdoor market, rubles and hryvnia were quickly interchanged, as traders made fast mental calculations. “I actually prefer the ruble,” said Natalia, a jovial 47-year-old who was selling shoelaces and hair accessories. “Hopefully we’ll soon move completely to the ruble, as we’re not going back to being part of Ukraine.”
[…]
Behind the city’s grand and gray theater sat the Donetsk arm of the Lviv Handmade Chocolate Café, a quiet nest of resistance. It’s part of a chain of stores across the country that originated in the western city of Lviv; by company rules, the staff must wait on customers in the Ukrainian language, which came as something of a shock in a city where gun-wielding rebels bent on fighting Kiev roamed the streets. “Many people in the town are surprised we’re still functioning, but we’re happy to work here,” a senior member of the management told me, speaking on condition of anonymity. Supplies came from the chocolate factory in Lviv, and were sometimes delayed for weeks, she said. Display shelves by the entrance, usually filled with an array of freshly made truffles, were conspicuously empty. But high heels and teddy bears cast in milk chocolate were boxed up and ready for sale.

Something else was awry. The café’s Kiev branches have a product that was missing in Donetsk: chocolate figurines of Vladimir Putin, clad in military fatigues with his arm wrapped behind his back. In his hidden palm, he holds an edible grenade.

Ukraine leader attacks Greek ‘disaster’ - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/22f31128-2996-11e5-acfb-cbd2e1c81cca.html?siteedition=intl#axzz3fqZEexrA

Ukraine’s prime minister has called Europe’s handling of the Greece crisis a “political disaster”, and said it was already leading to political repercussions for Kiev where opposition is rising to tough reforms required as part of an international bailout.
In an interview with the Financial Times on Monday, Arseniy Yatseniuk bemoaned the fact that Greece was absorbing so much of the world’s attention — and Europe’s financial resources — even as Kiev had to deal with Russian tanks on its soil and was in dire need of more financial help.

“Everyone is so focused on Greece that Ukraine is not the priority. It is not on radars,” he said during a visit to Washington.
[…]
The Greek saga had also complicated his government’s handling of its own crisis, he said, with factions in parliament introducing bills to roll back pension, energy sector and other reforms. In a rare political intervention the International Monetary Fund warned on Sunday that Ukraine’s parliament was risking “reversing economic reforms for the sake of short-term gains”.

Pas un mot sur la loi votée par le Parlement imposant un cours forcé pour le remboursement des dettes (au taux du jour de conclusion de l’emprunt). C’est pourtant l’un des éléments relevés dimanche dans l’intervention du FMI

IMF Warns Proposed Legislation in Ukraine Threatens Reforms - WSJ
▻http://www.wsj.com/articles/imf-warns-proposed-legislation-in-ukraine-threatens-reforms-1436723753

The fund also condemned a separate law passed by parliament earlier this month that would allow Ukrainians to repay foreign currency loans at a more favorable exchange rate, a move some experts have said could collapse the country’s banking system. President Petro Poroshenko has signaled he will veto the foreign-exchange bill.

Anniversaire du début de #Maïdan : signature de l’accord de coalition

Pro-Western parties sign historic coalition agreement
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/kyiv/pro-western-parties-sign-historic-coalition-agreement-372667.html

One year after the start of the EuroMaidan Revolution that drove President Viktor Yanukovych from power on Feb. 21, five political parties elected on Oct. 26 to Ukraine’s parliament have signed a coalition agreement bringing the country closer to the West and committing it to pursuing European Union integration and NATO membership. 

Five of the six parties parties elected to the Rada in the Oct. 26 parliamentary election joined the broad coalition, including the Bloc of President Petro Poroshenko, the People’s Front led by Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Samopomich (Self-Help) party, Oleh Lyashko’s Radical Party and Batkivshchyna led by ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. 

Only two of the parties, Batkivshcyhna and the Radical Party, existed a year ago.

http://www.kyivpost.com/media/images/2014/11/21/p1979et0i63i8t18qe1bpol9h4/big.jpg

“An obvious question is why, given the huge pressures being felt now on Ukraine, did it take reform politicians more than one month after parliamentary elections to forge this coalition,” said Timothy Ash, head of emerging market research for Standard Bank in London.

In the coming weeks one of the main tests for the new parliament is whether it can resist the backdoor deals and political horse trading that have defined previous Ukrainian parliaments.

#c'est_y_pas_beau ?
et
#maquignonnage

Parliament votes to grant self-rule, amnesty to Donbas separatists
►http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/parliament-votes-to-grant-self-rule-amnesty-to-donbas-separatists-364826.h

Ukraine’s parliament supported on Sept. 16 two draft laws filed by President Petro Poroshenko aimed at temporary settling the conflict in the country’s embattled east by granting special status to the territories occupied by separatists for three years and giving amnesty to some of the Kremlin-backed rebel fighters.
Poroshenko personally came to parliament and addressed lawmakers to persuade them to vote for the laws in order to secure peace in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
“There is no more important task for us than peace now,” Poroshenko said in his address to lawmakers as was posted on his website on Sept. 15. “These are the key points that will insure it.”
Both laws were passed by a majority of lawmakers during a closed session of parliament and were immediately slammed by critics as massive concessions to Russia.

C’est quand même assez hallucinant la vitesse à laquelle les choses peuvent bouger !

Mais aussi, il n’est jamais trop tard pour bien faire...

Evidemment, les va-t-en guerre ne seront pas contents.

Boris Danik : Imagining Donbas vote for Ukraine’s parliament
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/opinion/op-ed/boris-danik-imagining-donbas-vote-for-ukraines-parliament-359055.html

No one should discount the possibility of the makeup of the next Rada showing a nearly a 50-50 divide, similar to that marking all previous regimes in the independent Ukraine. This divide essentially exists into this day, with deputies now committed to the oligarchs able to swing the outcomes. Having little choice after the ouster of Yanukovych, they have swung to shape a pro-Ukrainian majority.

Looking with open eyes, it is impossible to deny that elections for Ukraine’s parliament in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, if they take place there, would be for a party agenda similar to that of the Party of Regions.

Notwithstanding Russia’s role in stimulating the Donbas separatism, large segments of population in that area didn’t need much stimulation to vote with guns against the new Ukrainian government which they detested. And many still feel the same way, embittered by urban destruction and civilian casualties for which they blame Ukrainian troops.

Denial of the evidence of hate which is there for all to see doesn’t help. Patriotically-inclined citizens who avoid a reality check can only lead to collective mistakes and exaggerated expectations.
(…)
From a Ukrainian point of view, the question is not what would be best (the pace of war is hardly under Kyiv’s control), but rather what options not to take. Attempts to crush the rebels in their city stronghold would be countered by more firepower from Russia, including direct across-border shelling.

Hypothetically, reconquering all of Donbas would open a plethora of problems for Ukraine’s democratic government, how to accommodate the traditionally pro-Russian population that basically despises Ukraine not of their own making, with Russian civilization attributes.

Perhaps the best realizable outcome could be a semi-permanent ceasefire if all sides would be willing to accept it. After all, a ceasefire in Korea has held a long time. Or think of Transnistria, and don’t reject it out of hand. It may be a puny model but better than the non-stop war. Again, this is hypothetical, but so are most other solutions.
Boris Danik is a retired Ukrainian-American living in North Caldwell, New Jersey.

Un point de vue plutôt mesuré sur le Kyiv Post.