Viktor MEDVEDCHUK, “Nobody will take what’s ours”

Verkhovna Rada stands a good chance to pass four codes before the end of its eighth session, the Ukrainian parliament’s first Vice Chairman Viktor Medvedchuk told the Media Personnel Association on November 23. In Mr. Medvedchuk’s opinion, the tail end of the last session — in February and March, the peak of the parliamentary election campaign — will be ineffective, as far as lawmaking is concerned.

“Now that the Land Code has been passed,” the first vice speaker believes, “the Civil Code, four of the six books of which have already been adopted, and the Tax Code comes to the fore.” Mr. Medvedchuk described the latter as “one of the most important strategic legislative acts of our state, because the new tax law opens the way and provides the means to improve the economic system of this country.” According to the first deputy speaker, there is a real hope that the Civil and Tax Codes will be finally drafted by the end of November and December. Moreover, Verkhovna Rada, he said, is finishing its scrutiny of the Customs and Economic Codes. In other words, if the voting goes smoothly, the already passed four codes can be supplemented by another four at the end of the session.

Simultaneously Mr. Medvedchuk thinks that passing the 2002 budget law remains a major item on the legislative agenda. He announced that this bill, drawn up by the Cabinet of Ministers for the second reading, had been submitted to the parliament and would be put to a vote on what he called the hectic day of November 29. Among the budget amendments proposed by the cabinet is a UAH 600-million increase in budget revenues and expenditures and a UAH 200-million growth of subsidies to local budgets (i.e., from UAH 4.1 billion to 4.3 billion).

Almost all questions were about SDPU(o) participation in the parliamentary elections. The journalists saw again that the party leadership is determined to contest the election as a self-sufficient political force. Mr. Medvedchuk said the SDPU(o) does not attach too much importance to who will be the first five or ten on the party election list. He reiterated that the Social Democrat list would “include those who are professionally prepared for lawmaking.” Asked if Yevhen Marchuk, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (who, as the first Vice Speaker recalled, entered this Verkhovna Rada session on the United Social Democratic ticket without being a SDPU{o} member), could be put on the party list, Mr. Medvedchuk answered, “The question of him being put on our party list has never been discussed. But let us wait for the congress. I cannot speak for the whole party, but the party leadership has not yet discussed this issue.”