11/26/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - Parliament adopted a package of laws on decentralization

Parliament adopted a package of laws on decentralization

11.26.2015 Daily Highlights by the Digests & Analytics Ukraine Agency

Topics from Media and Social Networks

• Parliament adopted a package of laws on decentralization.
• President Poroshenko wants to become a member of the European Parliament after the first or second term.
• The Interior Ministry has no claims to the oligarch Firtash who is about to return to Ukraine.

Key Events in Ukraine

• President Poroshenko vetoed the law on consolidating the guarantees of the rights of internally displaced persons. The law was sent back for revision because it does not define the authorized body determining the absence of IDPs from their place of residence and confirming information about their movements in Ukraine.
• The law on the budgets of the merged territorial communities determines the specifics of the income and expenditures of local budgets in the event of late entry into force of the law on the state budget and regulates the financial support for the communities that have not been merged.
  Local budgets will receive charges for the registration of immovable property rights and for the state registration of business entities. The authority to register is transferred from the Ministry of Justice to local territorial communities and notaries. Information and statements will be made available only in electronic form. The procedure to register charities and non-profit community organizations has been simplified.
  Local councils are now required to vote by roll-call.
  The law on science and research activities has been adopted. The amendment proposed by MP Kivalov permitting the seizure of lands leased or used by academic institutions has been rejected.
  MPs failed to adopt the law on public service, which the EU considers to be the key to reforms in Ukraine.
  The Parliament did not provide enough votes to withdraw the mandates of MPs Filatov, Ohnevich and Atroshchenko who submitted letters of resignation.
• The National Bank adopted a resolution on strengthening the oversight of payment systems, which will allow it to suspend the licenses of non-bank institutions and Ukrposhta in case of violation of the law when transferring funds.
• The National Bank has once again strengthened the official hryvnia rate: 23.60 ₴/$ (-0.17 UAH), 25.04 ₴/€ (-0.12 UAH), 3.59 ₴/10 ₽ (-0.04 UAH).

Ukraine at War

• The management of the OSCE mission reports that the number of attacks in the war area in Donbas continues to increase. According to official reports, there were no casualties among Ukrainian soldiers.
• The repairs of the power transmission line that supplies electricity to Crimea were stopped at the request of the activists. In the peninsula, electricity is supplied accordint to a timetable, filling stations are running out of fuel used to generate power.

Ukraine and the World

• Presidents of Russia and France agreed to exchange intelligence information to fight the Islamic State. President Hollande confirmed that he does not see the current Syrian President Assad as a political actor. Putin said he would support his main ally Assad.
• Russia has deployed in Syria the latest air defense systems S-400. Turkish President Erdogan refused to apologize for the downed Russian bomber. Turkey's Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador to complain about protests against Turkish diplomatic missions in Russia. Russian Foreign Ministry recommended that Russians leave Turkey under the pretense of the existing terrorist threats. Prime Minister Medvedev announced the preparation of military, diplomatic and economic sanctions against Turkey in response to the downing of the bomber.
• Moldova’s special services neutralized a criminal pro-Russian group that was preparing the overthrow of the country’s government.

The Trends

• The elections of the anti-corruption prosecutor that were broadcast live showed that the applicants for the job do not realize that the society demands this position to be fully independent. Experts point out that the requirement to have five years of experience in the procuracy restricts the number of applicants to those who had previously worked in the system and adopted its rules; the criteria for selecting candidates have not been defined; the appointment to the position by the Attorney General Shokin makes the post of the anti-corruption prosecutor a part of the existing corrupt model.