Parliament extends law on special status of Donbas for a year

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has extended the law on a special order of local self-governance in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions until the end of 2020.

A total of 320 MPs voted in favor of the relevant draft law at a parliament meeting on Thursday, with the minimum required 226, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

On December 10, Davyd Arakhamia, the head of the Servant of the People faction, and his first deputy, Oleksandr Korniienko, registered a bill proposing that the Verkhovna Rada extend the effect of the law on a special order of local self-governance in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions until December 31, 2020.

The law on a special order of local self-governance in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions was adopted in September 2014 and came into force on October 18, 2014, for a period of three years. It expires on December 31, 2019.

On December 9, Paris hosted a meeting of the leaders of the Normandy Four countries - Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky, Vladimir Putin, Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Zelensky told Ukrainian journalists after the meeting that he considered it optimal to extend the law on the peculiarities of local self-governance in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions for one year and then to incorporate the so-called "Steinmeier formula" into the document.

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