The Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc plans to approve the amendments to the Constitution in the next session of the parliament and submit a draft law to the Constitutional Court. YTB member Valeriy Pysarenko informed about these plans at a recent press conference. He stated that an agreement has not been reached with the Our Ukraine – People’s Self-dense bloc regarding the formation of a constitutional committee. As a reminder, President Viktor Yushchenko appealed for completing the work on the concept of the revised Constitution in the National Constitutional Council.

Meanwhile, the Party of Regions is proposing to form an ad hoc committee on submitting amendments to the Constitution.

 

The head of the radical People’s Movement of Ukraine (Narodniy Rukh Ukrainy) Ivan Stoiko stated that the Our Ukraine party will raise issues on dissolving the parliamentary coalition in the event that an ad hoc investigative committee is formed to draft amendments to the Constitution.

He said the recent declarations of the leader of the YTB that amendments will be made to the Constitution and Ukraine will become a parliamentary republic will lead to a schism in the coalition.

 

 

The first nationwide mandatory testing was recently conducted in Ukraine. The first exams high school graduates took were on Ukrainian language and literature. As a reminder, independent testing based on a transparent and objective system of grading students’ knowledge is conducted upon the initiative of President Viktor Yushchenko and is stipulated by the decree of July 4, 2007 “Regarding Emergency Measures to Ensure the Functioning and Development of Education in Ukraine”.

 

A working group of the National Constitutional Council completed its work on the concept of a revised Constitution. The group developed a firm position that the form of governance in Ukraine shall remain parliamentary-presidential. Despite this, the powers of the president will see changes in accordance with the newly developed concept. It is envisaged that the president will be stripped of his right to motion candidates for the posts of ministers of defense and foreign affairs.

 

Ukraine’s Ministry of the Economy informed that Director General of the World Trade Organization Pascal Lamy announced that on May 16, 2008 Ukraine will be accepted as a full-fledged member of the WTO.

Lamy reminded that the protocol on Ukraine joining the Marrakesh Agreement on establishing the WTO was signed in Geneva on February 5, 2008. On April 16 the government of Ukraine approved this protocol. It takes effect on May 16, 2008, meaning that Ukraine will become a full-fledged member of the WTO on this date.

 

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine submitted a claim to the UN headquarters as an official document of the UN General Assembly regarding the anti-Ukrainian statements made by high-standing officials of the Russian government.The Ukrainian ministry expressed its concern about these statements which cast doubt on the territorial integrity of Ukraine and can be construed as direct intervention into internal state affairs.

 

Premier Yulia Tymoshenko informed that the leadership of the World Bank highly appraised the work of the Ukrainian government in terms macroeconomic indicators of the country’s development, anti-inflation measures and the government’s anti-corruption program. Tymoshenko said the World Bank believes that if the government maintains such a policy, inflation in Ukraine will disappear in the short term.

 

The Democratic Initiatives Foundation informed that over the past three months the number of people willing to see Ukraine become a member of NATO fell by 10% based on a nationwide public opinion poll conducted at the end of March. Experts affirm that Ukrainian citizens are against Ukraine joining the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) as they have not clue what the plan entails. The low level of informed citizens and the active campaign by opponents of Ukraine’s accession to NATO, in particular the Party of Regions and the Communist Party of Ukraine, have played out their roles.

 

 

Today Premier Yulia Tymoshenko introduced the new acting chair of the State Property Fund Andriy Portnov.

The former head of the SPF Valentyna Semeniuk-Samsonenko was issued a letter regarding dismissal from her post in the government.

 

President Viktor Yushchenko signed a decree that once again suspended the effect of a directive of the Cabinet of Ministers on conducting personnel changes in the State Property Fund of Ukraine. As a reminder, on February 6 the Cabinet removed Semeniuk-Samsonenko as chair of the State Property Fund and appointed Andriy Portnov to fulfill the duties of this position. On February 7 President Viktor Yushchenko by virtue of his decree suspended the effect of the directive of the Cabinet of Ministers and submitted the corresponding appeal to the Constitutional Court on the constitutionality of this directive.Today, Andriy Portnov announced that the Kyiv District Administrative Court suspended the effect of the presidential decree on personnel changes in the SPF. Be that as it may, there is no such information on the website of the Constitutional Court.

 

Premier Yulia Tymoshenko instructed the acting chair of the SPF Andriy Portnov to not fulfill the decree of President Viktor Yushchenko on suspension of staff changes in the SPF and suspending the privatization of the Odesa Portside Plant.

 

President Viktor Yushchenko declared that the leadership of the SPF can only be done legitimately through the Verkhovna Rada and explained that a motion to appoint a new SPF chair can be done “exclusively through the parliament by a majority of votes”.