To Work, Gentlemen and Comrades!

Verkhovna Rada at last defined its goals and tasks for the near future: Thursday’s attempt to approve the agenda for the current parliamentary semester proved successful, unlike a number of previous ones. 263 of 429 deputies registered in the session hall voted for the resolution. According to the document, Verkhovna Rada is to consider a number of codes: the Criminal Procedure Code, Administrative Procedure Code, Code on Waste Products, Big Judicial Code, Electoral Code, and Code on Culture. Among other documents are the two bills on the political reform, now under examination by the Constitutional Court (recall that one of them was drawn up by the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reform and the other by the Presidential Administration in cooperation with people’s deputies), On the Basics for Ukraine’s Domestic and Foreign Policy, On the Political Opposition, On Making Amendments to Laws to Ban Forcible Eviction of the Most Unprivileged Strata of Society without Granting Them Other Housing, and On Social and Legal Guarantees to the President of Ukraine after His Term. The list of issues to be prepared and elaborated for the session’s consideration are bills On the State Budget for 2004 and On the Cabinet of Ministers, including the president’s proposals. Deputies also defined the dates for parliamentary hearings until the end of 2003. In part, October 22 hearings will be held in Verkhovna Rada on the subject, Ukrainian-Russian Relations: Current Situation and Prospects; October 19 on Ukraine’s Foreign Policy as an Instrument for Securing National Interests: Achievements, Reality and Prospects; and December 1, the State Budget: Real Sources for Filling and Enhancing the State’s Financial Resources.

That same day hearings will be held On the Social and Economic Problems Connected with HIV/AIDS and Drug Addiction in Ukraine, and on December 22 On Solving the Problem of Homeless Adults and Children. In addition, the deputies approved a decision to hold parliamentary hearings On State Policy in the Sphere of Paying Back and Compensation for Depreciated Bank Deposits at a date yet to be fixed.