The right of legislative initiative in the Ukrainian parliament, which previously belonged to the president, the Cabinet of Ministers and members of parliament, may be given to the people of Ukraine, according to the text of bill No. 1015 changing Article 93 of the Constitution of Ukraine (on the people’s legislative initiative), submitted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on August 29.
The text of the document was posted on the Ukrainian parliament website on Friday.
The bill proposes including in Paragraph 1 of Article 93 of the Constitution the words that “the right of legislative initiative in the Verkhovna Rada belongs to the people, the president of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, members of parliament of Ukraine and is exercised by them in the situations and in accordance with the procedures determined by the Constitution and laws of Ukraine.”
The document proposes added to the Constitution a paragraph stating that “the law is adopted in accordance with the legislative procedure requirements determined by the Constitution and laws of Ukraine.”
According to the explanatory note attached to the bill, the purpose of the changes proposed by the bill is to ensure an effective mechanism of legislative initiative in Ukraine by broadening the list of its subjects.
The bill needs to be adopted because the list of subjects of the right of legislative initiative determined by the Constitution “is narrow and makes it impossible for the people of Ukraine as the only source of power to be such subject.”
Ukraine currently does not have a legislative mechanism for implementing the proposal to give the right of legislative initiative to the people.
