Experts of the Reanimation Package of Reforms have presented the updated Reforms Roadmap – a document setting the tasks for the Verkhovna Rada, the Cabinet of Ministers, the local self-government bodies, and other branches of power by the end of 2017.
Presenting this document, Co-Chair of the RPR Board Taras Shevchenko called it a master plan for the development of the country.
“The civil society has a distinct vision as to which reforms are necessary for the country. The previous Reforms Roadmap was intended for the Verkhovna Rada, 80% of it having been incorporated into the VRU Coalition Agreement. Whereas in this Roadmap each of the 23 reforms has more content: definition of the issues, specific steps to be taken, responsible persons, and the expected changes,” said Taras Shevchenko.
Colombe de Mercey, EU Delegation Sector Manager for civil society and media, said that the European Union supports the reforms in Ukraine and stressed that it is also important to set clear deadlines to implement the changes.
“It has always been difficult to work in a coalition, so I would like to congratulate both the RPR and its partners, as they have been cooperating for two and half years already. This facilitates reforms in the country.”
Ivan Miklos, head of the Group of Advisers to the Prime Minister of Ukraine and co-chair of the Group of Strategic Advisors on the Support for Reforms in Ukraine, said that fighting with populism is another important aspect of the reforms.
“Reform is a political thing. And I like that this document (Reforms Roadmap) covers the issue of the political system and that one of the priorities is the fight against populism, because populism is even a bigger threat than Putin and Russia,” said Mr. Miklos.
During the second session of the round table, experts, MPs, and government officials discussed how to build an effective system for preventing and combating corruption.
Vitaliy Shabunin, Head of Board of the Anticorruption Action Center, stressed that despite the fact that the fight against corruption is one of the most important areas of reform in Ukraine, the society is doing its best not to advance, but to protect the existing achievements from the attacks of the authorities.
“We are talking about two key things. The first one is an attempt to ruin the electronic declaration system and its effective functioning in different ways. The second one is an attempt to destroy the Anticorruption Bureau.”
Yehor Soboliev, chairman of the VRU Committee on Preventing and Fighting Corruption, agreed with the public agenda.
“I completely agree with the agenda presented in the RPR Reforms Roadmap. We have to fight for every change: starting from the wiretapping for the NABU and finishing with the introduction of responsibility for ‘piano voting’ in the parliament. It will be the best defense of the victories we have already obtained.”
Meanwhile, MP Valeriy Karpuntsov expressed his concerns regarding the electronic declaration system, having said that it is too strict penalties for mistakes in the declarations that is a problem.
“I will be honest with you: looking at my colleagues at the parliament, and at all the rest, I see no desire to fill out declarations scrupulously. Yes, it is necessary, but there are some concerns regarding too strict penalties for mistakes. Therefore, there are some discussions, but in general I recommend filling out the declarations,” said Mr. Karpuntsov.
As for the priorities of the governmental officials in the fight against corruption, the First Deputy Minister of Justice Natalia Sevostianova said that internal anticorruption measures are most important for all the departments.
“Another scope of work is establishment of new anticorruption agencies. These are the NAPC, the NABU, and the SBI. It is very important to set up the SBI. We also need some legislative changes, so that this agency could be launched as soon as possible, in early 2017,” added Ms. Sevostianova.
One of the members of the newly established anticorruption agency, head of the legal department of the NABU Ihor Yarchak stressed that the agency still lacks guarantees for its legal powers to work effectively.
“The draft law on wiretapping has not been considered in the parliament, while this issue is important for us, because the subjects under our jurisdiction include senior officers of the State Security Service of Ukraine and the National Police, while according to the effective laws only those agencies can wiretap information channels. Therefore, we cannot fully exercise our powers,” stressed Yarchak.
Transparent funding of political parties is also one of the key anticorruption measures. Viktor Taran, head of the Center for Political Studies and Analysis “Eidos”, member of the RPR Board, spoke about the effectiveness of public financing of political parties and about the registered amendments to the Law on open use of public funds.
“In our opinion, this will not, of course, fully eradicate political corruption, yet these measures will limit access of the politicians to the budgetary funds and will help cleanse the political system.”
Ihor Popov, deputy head of the VRU Committee on Preventing and Fighting Corruption, stressed the importance of distributing powers between different institutions.
“The Prosecutor General’s Office attempts to regain its lost powers, while the NABU wants to expand theirs. It is therefore very important to properly distribute the institutional powers among all the anticorruption agencies.”
“To build a proper system of anticorruption agencies, it is necessary to defend the current system from numerous attacks,” said Ruslan Riaboshapka, member of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention.
“On the other hand, all these attacks on us – on the anticorruption agencies and the public – mean that we are doing everything right. We need to withstand all these attacks without losses. Now, we have reached a stage when the changes will become irreversible and it will be possible provided that we cooperate with the RPR and the international partners,” summed up Mr. Riaboshapka.
During the third session – “Economic transformations to boost business development and increase life standards” – the experts and the MPs singled out key tasks in the economic sector by the end of 2017.
Hlib Vyshlinskyi, executive director of the Center for Economic Strategy, member of the RPR Board, said that unpredictable exchange rate and unstable financial system, as well as other obstacles which should be solved by the Reforms Roadmap are among the ten largest barriers to foreign investments in Ukraine.
“Responsible fiscal policy stipulated by the Reforms Roadmap is a key prerequisite for the stability of the financial system. This document also provides for the formation of a stable banking system and introduction of simplified business environment and conditions for the development of small and medium businesses in Ukraine. Our main goal is to boost economic growth of Ukraine to compensate for the losses sustained over the past couple of years,” said Vyshlinskyi.
Dmytro Romanovych, advisor to the Minister of Economy of Ukraine, added that the economic reforms stipulated in the Reforms Roadmap will take the subject of corruption away from the existing or potential corrupt officials.
“For a long time the economic reforms have not been supported by the public. Now support of economic initiatives is more tangible. However, it is important to remember that economic growth cannot be restored without any changes in this area,” said Mr. Romanovych.
MP Hryhoriy Shverk has agreed that economic transformations need more attention.
“Welfare of every citizen, as well as the country’s development depend on the economic growth and foreign investments. Therefore, we should support all the initiatives aimed at real economic growth,” said Mr. Shverk.
In general, the Reanimation Package of Reforms has identified seven priority areas by the end of 2017, namely: the anticorruption reform, the judicial reform, the public administration reform, the reform of the local self-government and decentralization of power, the reform of the electoral law, the law enforcement reform, and the package of economic reforms.
Action plans for each of these areas will be presented at the relevant discussions.
Round table was organized with the support of the Government of Sweden and the European Union within the project “Enhancement of the Reanimation Package of Reforms Coalition” implemented by the Center for Democracy and Rule of Law.
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