Ukrainian President proposes to abolish parliamentary immunity
During his speech for Constitution Day, President Petro Poroshenko called for parliamentary immunity to be abolished.
“The high profile cases, the decisive steps in the fight against corruption, which are being demonstrated by the Prosecutor General’s Office and the National Anti-corruption Bureau, remind us all of what an anachronism parliamentary immunity is. My bill to change the constitution is ready. It will require political will from the MPs – once and for all, to put themselves on the same level of rights as Ukrainian citizens. Just like we removed the immunity of judges,” he said in Kyiv near the Pylyp Orlyk monument.
According to the President, this should take place “in the near future”.
“Once more I emphasize that I hope that the people’s representatives will make the relevant decision in the near future, since among them there probably isn’t even one who didn’t promise to remove this parliamentary immunity in their electoral programs,” he said.
In 2015, draft law No. 1776 was introduced in the Rada, through which President Petro proposed that the immunity of MPs and judges be removed. However, a rule should remain in the constitution so that MPs do not bear legal responsibility for the results of votes or for what they say in parliament and its organs, with the exception of insults or slander.
On February 5, 2015, the Verkhovna Rada supported the sending of this bill to the Constitutional Court, which gave a positive outcome in the summer of that year, but with a number of comments. Subsequently, the bill was not considered in the Rada.