The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, has approved at second reading and as a whole the presidential bill (No. 7440) on the High Anti-Corruption Court. According to an Interfax-Ukraine reporter, 315 MPs voted for such a decision at a plenary session of parliament on Thursday. In particular, the decision was supported by 123 MPs from the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko, 70 from the People’s Front, 22 from Samopomich, 14 from Batkivschyna, and two votes each from the Opposition Bloc and Oleh Liashko’s Radical Party. The Will of the People and Vidrodzhennia groups gave 18 and 21 votes in favor of the bill, respectively.
Some clauses of this bill were changed before second reading as a result of consultations with the IMF. The most controversial clause concerned the decisive role of the public council of international experts in the selection of judges. The law determines the procedure for holding a competition for the selection of anti-corruption judges.
Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday passed at first reading bill No. 3871 amending some Ukrainian laws regarding the ban on the use of palm oil in food. A total of 233 lawmakers backed the document.
The bill proposes amending the Code of Administrative Offenses of Ukraine, the laws on milk and dairy products, on the key principles and requirements to safety and quality of food. The amendments introduce administrative punishment for production and sale of food with palm oil content. It is banned to use palm oil in production of dairy products and food made in Ukraine.
The violation of the law implies a fine from 20 to 100 non-taxable minimum incomes of citizens (UAH 17) imposed on officials. The repeated violation committed during one year after imposing the first fine entails a fine from 100 to 200 non-taxable minimum incomes of citizens.
Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada has passed at first reading bill No. 8125 on concession. A total of 240 lawmakers backed the document on Tuesday. Head of the parliamentary committee for the economic policy Andriy Ivanchuk said that the bill divides regulation of concession and other forms of public private partnership, relaxes the rules of allocating land parcels for concession projects, sets the unified rules of making decisions for all types of public private partnership, including concession. The ownership right to the facility under concession is left to the territorial community, he said.
“According to statistics, the EU has signed concession agreements for EUR 12 billion. This is a modern tool that triggers development of infrastructure,” he said, presenting the bill in parliament. Ivanchuk said that the bill requires revision for second reading, in particular, in relation to the concession tender
