No political will in parliament to resolve constitutional crisis - Kondratiuk

"Unfortunately, now there is no political will in the parliament to pass any bill concerning both the return to electronic declaration […] and the reconstruction of the Constitutional Court as an institution," Kondratiuk said live on the Freedom of Speech program on the ICTV channel on Monday, November 16.

She said that a working group, consisting of representatives of all factions and political groups, had been set up in the Verkhovna Rada to draw up bills to resolve the constitutional crisis.

According to Kondratiuk, three bills will be drafted: one will concern the return of electronic asset declarations, the second - criminal liability for providing inaccurate data in e-declarations, and the third - changes regarding the activity of the Constitutional Court, if necessary.

On October 27, the Constitutional Court repealed Article 366-1 of the Criminal Code on penalties for lies in asset declarations and some provisions of the law "On Corruption Prevention." In particular, the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional the powers of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) to verify officials' asset declarations, monitor the lifestyle of those who submit asset declarations, establish the timeliness of submission of asset declarations, as well as provisions on open access to declarations in the single state register.

In connection with the decision of the Constitutional Court, President Volodymyr Zelensky held a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council on October 29 to determine measures for the state's immediate response to new threats and challenges to national security and defense. The decision was made at the meeting to reopen public access to the unified state register of asset declarations, to ensure the holding of special verifications by the NACP.

On October 30, Zelensky tabled in the Verkhovna Rada his bill "On Renewal of Public Confidence in Constitutional Judiciary" (No. 4288), which proposes to terminate the powers of the current composition of the Constitutional Court.

The bill also proposes to recognize that the Constitutional Court ruling of October 27 is null and void (not creating any legal consequences) as it was adopted by the judges of the Constitutional Court amid a real conflict of interest.

On November 2, a group of MPs from several factions led by Verkhovna Rada Chairman Dmytro Razumkov registered bill No. 4304 "On Resuming the Effect of Certain Provisions of the Law of Ukraine on Corruption Prevention and the Criminal Code of Ukraine." The document provides for the introduction of amendments to the law "On Corruption Prevention," which proposes to restore the NACP's rights.

Bill No. 4319 "On the Introduction of Amendments to the Law of Ukraine on the Constitutional Court of Ukraine (Concerning the Procedure for Consideration of Cases by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine)" was registered in the Ukrainian parliament. Its sponsors are the parliament's representative in the Constitutional Court, Olha Sovhyria, and the president's representative in the Constitutional Court, Fedir Venislavskyi.

The bill proposes increasing from 10 to 12 the required number of votes for a decision of the Grand Chamber of the Constitutional Court. In addition, the authors propose changes providing that the rules of procedure of the Constitutional Court are approved by law.

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