Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced core objectives for the future coalition and Government
At a press conference on Friday, November 14, Prime Minister of Ukraine
Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced what the principal objectives for the future
parliamentary coalition and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine should be.
The Head of Government reminded that two weeks before he had announced
the principles of publicity in the process of appointment of CMU members. He
noted that the final text of the coalition agreement is being discussed which
should be approved by top political leaders and factions, "It is quite
right that all political parties have their own vision of the state’s development.
And the more we apply the tools of public discussion and expert communication,
the better is the reform plan, the plan of changes and, the most important, the
higher is the level of responsibility of all the political forces, which will
be a part of the coalition, for the implementation of the reform plan".
To ensure execution of the reform plan, he stressed, "it is vital to
have the unity of the Ukrainian President, Prime Minister, Speaker of the
Parliament and the entire parliamentary coalition", "Decisions are to
be taken with the involvement of three top officials in the office of the
President, with the participation of the Prime Minister and the Chairman of the
Verkhovna Rada. It should be a debate to consider different options. Afterwards
we should have a single public position, which is fully backed by the
parliamentary coalition to be formed".
"We adhere to the principles of neither political quotas, but those
of a political responsibility of all parliamentary forces, engaged into the formation
of the coalition and those poised to assume
responsibility. The euphoria of the election campaign should have ended long
ago. The percents obtained in the election process imply the percents of
responsibility instead of the number of seats in the Parliament", accentuated
the Head of Government.
He has stressed that Ukraine faces unprecedented challenges, the most
difficult of which is war, "which kills people and kills the economy",
"Facing such challenges any kind of the populist discussion, whether it is
the text of the agreement or personnel appointments and quotas in Government, is viewed unacceptable and appear a betrayal of
the country."
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Arseniy Yatsenyuk reminded that the Constitution of Ukraine contains
that an action plan of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine must be approved,
"it shall be approved for one year and sets clear goals and objectives
for the Government and requires solidarity in voting and accountability of
the entire Verkhovna Rada, which supports the action plan of the Cabinet of
Ministers". He stressed that the programme of the Government is derived
from the coalition agreement. The next year, according to the PM, should be devoted to implementation
of five principal tasks. The first relates to national security and defense, "A reform of the Armed Forces and the
military-industrial complex. New weapons, a new management system in the
Armed Forces, new logistics. And building of the Ukrainian army, which is capable
to stop the Russian military aggression and to protect Ukrainian citizens -
now it is task number one”. "Effective
actions to stop the military aggression will affect everything starting from
economic development and investment, and ending in success of the reforms and
the sense of our citizens’ confidence in the future. Fear needs to be
overcome by the ability of the state to protect its citizens," he explained. The second task is upgrading
justice and law enforcement system. Arseniy Yatsenyuk reminded that the
Government had prepared amendments to the law on the judicial system,
"which envisages a new quality of a judicial system and transition of
powers to the Supreme Court of Ukraine". In addition, the Cabinet of
Ministers introduced a concept of reforming the law enforcement system in general
and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Another block of objectives is an economic one, "Our economy is
now totally dependent on war. The war sucks from us billions of hryvnyas, not
allowing to attract a dollar of private investment
and provoking an outflow of deposits and panic in the currency market. The war
is damaging the economic potential of industrial regions, has destroyed the
infrastructure in Donetsk and Luhansk, requires billions of funds to support
the resettlers," Arseniy Yatsenyuk emphasized and
added that, in addition, billions of funds were necessary to pay assistance
to the internally displaced persons. "Therefore, we
believe it vital to have the Law on the State Budget approved by the new Parliament.
The law is extremely difficult, the budget will be austere, so nobody will play
populism," stressed the Prime Minister. In addition, the
Government has prepared and submitted to the Parliament the draft tax and budget
reforms, "A tax reform provides for reducing taxes, shrinking tax rates,
primarily regarding a single social tax. Due to the reduction of rates and
taxes, the budget will be even tougher, but we are to take changes to deshadow the economy, to enable the business to breathe
easier, hoping it will become a prerequisite for future economic boost." Arseniy Yatsenyuk
said that the Government sees a chance for our economy to grow not earlier than
in 2016, "This view is aired by the Government from the first day. But to
ensure such economic growth it proves necessary to endorse the elaborated by the Government package of
economic reforms, which includes the laws on the new budget, a tax reform and
fiscal decentralization". The bill on fiscal decentralization, he said, "suggests an
opportunity for the territorial communities to obtain additional resource, however,
at this increasing the responsibility for the territorial communities". One more set of tasks, according to Arseniy Yatsenyuk, concerns the
decentralization of power in general, "The Government is engaged in active
work on this issue, and the Parliament has a number of bills including the
law on the principles of regional policy and the law on association of
territorial communities". The Prime Minister highlighted the Cabinet of Ministers does not
consider it appropriate to delay an issue of increasing the role of local
government until the new Constitution is approved, "I believe that the reinforced
role of local communities and the change in the quality of such institution,
as heads of regional state administrations, proves possible through the
adoption of a new redaction of the law of Ukraine on local state
administrations and that on local self-government. The powers must be
transferred from regional administrations to the territorial communities.
This can be done by law, and this should be implemented throughout the next
year".
Another priority is a public administration reform. Arseniy
Yatseniuk informs it contains several blocks, with an anti-corruption policy as the first one. He reminded that five key
anti-corruption laws, having submitted by the Government and
the President, were already adopted by the Parliament, "Now these are
the laws to execute." In the framework of upgrading public administration it is viewed necessary the
implementation of the law on purification of authorities,
"The Government is engaged in active implementation of this law, and all the state authorities and
law enforcement agencies must abide by this law and in parallel form a cadre reserve to
renew the purified Ukrainian authorities and law enforcement system." Moreover, Arseniy Yatsenyuk stressed the need to change functions of
ministries, central authorities, local bodies. He reminded
that the incumbent Government had cut twofold control bodies and their
functions, “The same concerns the ministries, other state authorities that
deal with determining a policy. Reducing quantity and increasing quality is a
principal approach in forming of the public administration system in the
country”. |