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Focus on Ukraine, September 22-28, 2008

The Democratic Initiatives Foundation follows political events in Ukraine with the aim of monitoring the pre-election promises of the country’s leading political forces that won seats in the parliament as a result of the early elections to the Verkhovna Rada on September 30, 2007. The monitoring is conducted within the framework of the project “Where are our political leaders taking us?”

On Friday, September 19, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved the Law On the Civil Service, which secures bilingualism in the bodies of state government. The law contains provisions that individuals that are hired as civil servants must be fluent in Ukrainian, the official state language, and Russian. 
The author of this draft law is leader of the Party of Regions Viktor Yanukovych. 361 deputies voted in favor of the law. People’s deputies of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc I. Denkovych, S. Davymukha, O. Hudyma, S. Kurpil and M. Kosiv voted in favor of bilingualism in state bodies of government, while A. Shkil and V. Yavorivskiy abstained from voting. Deputies of the Party of Regions P. Pysarchuk, T. Chornovil and H. Herman also abstained from voting.

Politicians have entered into talks on the formation of a new coalition. The Party of Regions sent its members on a mission to lobby all the factions in the VR. Despite these efforts, there is no chance that the deputies of the pro-presidential bloc Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense (OU-PSD) will in principle not come to an agreement with the Communist Party and the Party of Regions as their views do not coincide. Only the YTB and the Lytvyn Bloc submitted their platform and principles of forming a new coalition.

President Viktor Yushchenko made some critical remarks regarding the National Budget for 2009. The head of state is not pleased with the fact that the government failed to take into consideration his initiative of the program of building affordable housing, has yet to resolve the issue of gas prices next year and did not envisage money to clear debts owed to Russia.

VR Speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk said at today’s session of the Verkhovna Rada that the government cannot function if a coalition is not formed in the parliament. Yatsenyuk underscored that the existence of a coalition is a mandatory norm in compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine.
Recall that although Yatsenyuk tendered his resignation, he remains the speaker of the parliament. The current vice speaker Lavrynovych, a member of the Party of Regions, is slated to replace Yatsenyuk.

Authorized Representative of Ukraine in the U.N. Volodymyr Vasylenko predicted that the U.N. International Court in The Hague may demarcate the shelf between Ukraine and Romania at the beginning of 2009.
The diplomat said that the debates held in the court between the two sides are not about territorial claims. The dispute revolves solely around economic zones and the continental shelf that is located beyond the borders of both countries.

Volodymyr Lytvyn told journalists that the probability of early parliamentary elections being held in Ukraine is 99.9%.
In his opinion, the nomination of a new candidate for the post of VR speaker is testimony to the inevitability of early parliamentary elections.

Premier Yulia Tymoshenko stated at a meeting of the government that the YTB insists on the formation of a coalition together with OU-PSD and the Lytvyn Bloc.
Tymoshenko confirmed that Lytvyn agreed to enter into the coalition and sign a political agreement. The premier also assured that the YTB will not put forth any ultimatums for the sake of preserving a democratic coalition.

Talks between the YTB and OU-PSD continued today. The pro-presidential force put forth three conditions to the premier: a joint statement on the Russian-Georgian conflict, sticking to the coalition agreement between the democratic forces and annulment of agreements with the Party of Regions.
The YTB faction stated that it is ready to sign a coalition agreement that would have effect between OU-PSD and the YTB to include the Lytvyn Bloc in the talks. Leader of the YTB faction Ivan Kyrylenko promised that a document on the formation of a democratic coalition will be signed by the end of the week.

People’s deputy Yuriy Myroshnychenko announced in an interview with journalists of the parliament that the Presidium of the Party of Regions approved a decision to suspend talks with the YTB.
He explained that this decision was due to the fact that the “orange forces” renewed the negotiation process about forming the tripartite coalition. Myroshnychenko emphasized that until the YTB does not give a concrete response concerning the format of the coalition, talks will not be prolonged.

Premier Yulia Tymoshenko stated today at a press conference in the Cabinet of Ministers that the formation of a coalition between the Party of Regions and the YTB can only be the extreme variant in order to prevent early parliamentary elections from being held.
At the same time, the premier stressed that even the formation of a coalition on the basis of ideologically incompatible parties will allow for preserving a democratic majority in the parliament, while democratically oriented parties may become more in the minority than today based upon the results of early elections.
Besides that, the premier stated that at present the YTB is not holding any talks with the Party of Regions on the formation of a parliamentary coalition.

People’s deputy of OU-PSD Mykola Katerynchuk informed journalists in an interview that 6 out of 9 parties that belong to the OU-PSD bloc are in favor of signing the agreement on forming a coalition between OU-PSD, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and the Lytvyn Bloc on September 27.
Katerynchuk said these are Vpered, Ukraina!, the Christian-Democratic Union, the Defenders of the Homeland Party, the Sobor Ukrainian Republican Party, the European Party of Ukraine and the National Movement of Ukraine (NRU). The deputy noted that today talks must be held without putting any ultimatums to the party’s allies.

The press service of the Ukrainian president informed that Ukraine and the U.S. have agreed on the extradition of Pavlo Lazarenko. During his working visit if President Viktor Yushchenko to the U.S., a group of Ukraine law enforcers began its work. They are convinced that the chances of achieving a positive result are high.
As a reminder, former premier of Ukraine Pavlo Lazarenko was sentenced to 9 years in prison in California on August 25, 2006 for money laundering and committing other crimes. Today, this sentence is being appealed while Lazarenko is under house arrest in his apartment in San Francisco.

Premier Yulia Tymoshenko made a statement to the foreign press that if the democratic coalition cannot be revived, the only way out of the political crisis is simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections.
In her opinion, if this happens it will provide an opportunity to reformat the entire political playing ground in society.
At the same time, Tymoshenko stated that early elections are not desirable. She said the most probable scenario of the course of events is the renewal of a stronger democratic coalition together with the Lytvyn Bloc.

Ukraine and Poland retained the right to organize and hold the Euro-2012 Football Championships. This decision was made on September 26 at a special meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee in Bordeaux, France.
UEFA obligated Ukraine and Poland to speed up the pace of preparations for Euro-2012.

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