Legislation: Headed for EU

The parliament passed a resolution on September 18 summing up hearings held the week before last, reading that the government’s performance in maintaining the nation’s food security was unsatisfactory, and recommending the cabinet to take additional measures to stabilize the situation, reports Interfax Ukraine. That same day, the parliament also passed the bill on adjusting the Ukrainian legislation to the EU rules in the first reading (239 ayes and 49 nays, the latter mainly courtesy of the Communist faction). The document has it that such adjustments mean working out and passing bills, as well as providing adequate conditions for their implementation, so as to bring Ukrainian legislation into conformity with the legal system of the European Union. The said program is to be carried out in stages, with the first stage embracing the period from 2004 through 2007, during which time adjustments are to be made in the customs and banking laws, corporate accounting, taxation, intellectual property, labor protection, finance, competition, health care, environmental protection, consumer rights, etc. The program is proposed to be financed by the central budget, technical aid funds ets. Verkhovna Rada did not pass a bill that would have repealed over fifty legislative acts enacted before the 1996 Constitution, including the law on the president of the Ukrainian SSR banning the head from serving more than two terms (173 ayes and 92 opposition nays, with 226 ayes required under the standing orders).