On July 6 and 7, in Kyiv, the OSCE / ODIHR in partnership with the Agency for Legislative Initiatives, IFES Ukraine, Civil Network OPORA and the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy held a workshop for experts on political parties.

The venue of the workshop was, as usual, the NaUKMA Historical and Museum Center.

The first expert discussion panel was devoted to the memory of Professor Yuriy Shveda, a political scientist and recognized expert on political parties. Svitlana Matviienko, Chairwoman of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives, announced an essay contest in memory of Professor Shveda, who also was a long-term lecturer at the Ukrainian School of Political Studies (winners of the competition will be honored at the annual “Parliamentary Readings” conference, which will take place in October this year).

At the commemorative panel, MP Serhiy Leshchenko pointed out that

During two days, more than 80 international and Ukrainian experts took part in interactive discussion panels and debated on the following issues:

• party funding and party reporting control;
• election process;
• inclusiveness of parties;
• involvement of young people in political life;
• gender aspects of political parties;
• new political movements and application of modern technologies;
• measurement of the impact of new media on politics;

and a number of other topics and issues.

Dr. Marcin Walecki, Head of the OSCE / ODIHR Democratization Department said,

The workshop ended with a public discussion on “The Future of the Reform of Regulation of the Activities of Political Parties in Ukraine”, involving:

•  Roman Bezsmertnyi, former Deputy Prime Minister,
•  MP Oleh Lavryk,
•  Oleksii Honcharuk, ex-advisor to the Minister of Ecology,
•  Oleksandr Zaslavskyi, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives,
•  Denys Kovryzhenko, Legal Advisor at the IFES Ukraine,

Several Ukrainian TV channels gave live coverage of the discussion.

The event was organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) with the partner support of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives, Civil Network OPORA, and IFES Ukraine.

The presentation was opened by Ihor Kohut, Chairman of the Board of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives, who briefly described the main priorities pursued by the Agency, and reported on the public discussions arranged in various regions of Ukraine for the purpose of the study.

Marcin Walecki, Chief of OSCE/ODIHR Democratic Governance Unit, noted that the presented report was the most complete and fundamental profile study, which would remain valid for the years to come. Mr Walecki commended the report for the interesting and simple presentation of information.

The introductory words were followed by the presentation of the main opinions and ideas of the report by Denys Kovryzhenko, Legal Programmes Director of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives.

The presentation was completed with the discussion of the presented analytical overview.

* * *

The National Report “Regulation of Political Parties: Current State and Direction of Reforms” has resulted from the discussions of the key issues in the regulation of the functioning of political parties, including those related to the participation of political parties in elections, campaign funding, internal party democracy, gender balance, complicated procedures set for the establishment and termination of political parties in Ukraine. The report also offers recommendations on the solutions and prospects for the improvement of the Ukrainian legislation which regulates the functioning of political parties on the basis of the best European practices.

During the round table, the Agency presented the study “Regulation of Political Parties in Ukraine: Current State and Directions of Reforms”, which is based on the discussions of the key problematic issues related to the regulation of the activities of political parties in Ukraine, including those related to the participation of political parties in elections, campaign funding, internal political party democracy, gender balance, complicated procedures set for the establishment and termination of political parties. The report also offers recommendations on the ways and prospects to improve the Ukrainian legislation regulating the functioning of political parties on the basis of the best European practices. The study was undertaken by Denys Kovryzhenko, Director for Legal Programmes of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives, with the financial support of the European Union within the framework of a joint EU-OSCE/ODIHR project.

The round table was opened by Marcin Walecki, Chief of OSCE/ODIHR Democratic Governance Unit, who defined the main aim of the national report on the legislation regulating the political parties in Ukraine – implementation of democratic transformations in the area of political party regulation. On behalf of ODIHR, Mr Walecki also expressed gratitude to the Agency for Legislative Initiatives for the fruitful cooperation during the project implementation.

After Mr Kovryzhenko presented the report, the following issues were discussed: (a) general principles for the regulation of establishment, functioning, and liquidation of political parties; (b) internal political party democracy; and (c) state and private funding of political parties and election campaigns.

Mykhaylo Shelep, Executive Director of the Centre for Political Analysis and Election Consulting, noted that timeliness of the study for the Ukrainian society. The expert, however, believes that the focus should be shifted from the ways to improve the legislation to the mechanisms for the implementation and observance of laws, since whatever imperfect the legislation may be, it will not be able to solve any problems if it is not observed.

Taras Plakhtiy, Member of the Male Kolo Society, emphasised the necessity to solve the problems of the internal political party democracy. The political scientist believes that political parties should deliver the following final product: (a) acquisition of public powers, which requires existence of a rigid hierarchical structure, and (b) generation of creative solutions for the current problematic issues, which requires developed horizontal links within the political party. In such a way, solution of this contradiction should become the starting point in the reform of the political party regulation in Ukraine.

Yuriy Kuzhelyuk, Member of Lviv City Council, believes that the main reason behind the degradation of the political party system in Ukraine is the constantly changing legislation, which not only sets additional barriers to political parties, but also undermines the voters’ trust to the political parties. Mr Kuzhelyuk also considers that the recent amendments, made to the law on local elections, had both positive and negative consequences. Thus, the positive changes included a ban on participation of political blocs, which often destabilise the functioning of the elected bodies, while cancellation of the possibility for the self-nomination of the mayoral candidates is regarded as a negative change.

Oles Starovoyt, Head of the Ideology Section of Our Ukraine Lviv Oblast Office Executive Committee, noted that the main problem of the imperfect political party regulation in Ukraine was lack of the public demand for such political parties, that would reflect the interests of specific voter groups, when a political party only strives to get the power without any general prospects and detailed action plans for the future.

Anatoliy Romanyuk, Director of the Centre for Political Studies, generally supported the recommendations presented in the report, having stressed the necessity to introduce state funding of political parties with efficient public control. The expert also referred to the European experience in termination of political parties: if a political party does not participate in elections a number of times in a row, it is cancelled automatically. Mr Romanyuk considers that members of political parties are not sufficiently interested in the proposals expressed by experts in terms of improvement of legislation related to the regulation of political parties.

Yuriy Shveda, Senior Lecturer of the Political Sciences Department of the Faculty of Philosophy of Lviv National Ivan Franko University, noted that the presented report meets the recommendations of the Venice Commission and reflects all aspects where the Ukrainian legislation is incompliant with the European standards. In the expert’s opinion, the legislative regulation of the political parties should ensure the balance between the liberal approach (whereby a political party is part of the society) and the public power paradigm (where a political party is identified with the government, while it is the government that regulates the activities of political parties). Mr Shveda considers that in any case competition should be ensured at the local level with the possibility of self-nomination, as well as a simplified procedure for the registration of political parties on the basis of an application should be introduced.

Certain round table participants, such as Vasyl Pasichnyk, Assistant Professor of the European Integration and Law Department of Lviv Regional Public Administration Institute, Olha Batyshcheva, Senior Lecturer of the Document Studies and Information Activities of the Ostrog Academy National University,Vasyl Marchuk, Director of Precarpathian Centre for Political Studies and European Integration Studies of Ivano-Frankivsk, were generally positive about the report, but noted that the study lacked the methodological basis – it was focused only on the normative side of the regulation of political parties omitting the substantial, from the political studies perspective, aspects of the functioning of political parties.

During the round table, the Agency presented the study “Regulation of Political Parties in Ukraine: Current State and Directions of Reforms”, which is based on the discussions of the key problematic issues related to the regulation of the activities of political parties in Ukraine, including those related to the participation of political parties in elections, campaign funding, internal political party democracy, gender balance, complicated procedures set for the establishment and termination of political parties. The report also offers recommendations on the ways and prospects to improve the Ukrainian legislation regulating the functioning of political parties on the basis of the best European practices. The study was undertaken by Denys Kovryzhenko, Director for Legal Programmes of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives, with the financial support of the European Union within the framework of a joint EU-OSCE/ODIHR project.

The round table was opened by Ihor Kohut, Chairman of the Board of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives, who described the regional expert discussions which preceded the preparation of the study, as well as emphasised the critical importance played by political parties in Ukraine’s social life before the local elections. He also suggested that the Parliamentary Committee for State Development and Local Self-Governance could establish a working group to analyse the proposals on the improvement of the functioning of political parties.

Oleksandr Omelchenko, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for State Development and Local Self-Governance, spoke about the problematic aspects related to the operation of Ukraine’s political parties. In particular, he stressed the difference between the registered political parties in Ukraine and the number of the relatively active ones, including those represented in the Parliament. In Mr Omelchenko’s opinion, a considerable difference between these figures evidences a problem in the democratic functioning of political parties. Mr Omelchenko also noted the importance for Ukraine to develop its own political party model and general political system.

Rene Bebeau, Senior Project Manager of the OSCE Project Coordinator, said he was confident that the presented study should become the basis for the development of further proposals on the improvement of the political system in Ukraine. Marcin Walecki, Chief of the OSCE/ODIHR Democratic Governance Unit, stressed that the presented report was the most complete study of the topic, and that it also contained the most successful practices of the European countries.

During the discussion of the study and the Ukrainian political party system, Ihor Zhdanov, President of the Open Ukraine Think Tank, expressed his assumption that with renewal of the Ukrainian Constitution in the its 1996 version, the Ukrainian political system will go back to its condition of 1998-2004, which was characterised by instable faction structure, as well as a formal relations between political parties and members of parliament acting on their behalf in the Verkhovna Rada. In this context, Yuriy Klyuchkovskyi, Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for State Development and Local Self-Governance, mentioned that the role of political parties in the political life of the country may decrease. He also pointed out to the necessity of the legislative support to the internal political party democracy. Volodymyr Stretovych, Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Legal Support to the Law-Enforcement Activities, pointed out to the danger of monopolisation of the political party system by one political party.

Regulation of Political Parties in Ukraine: Current State and Directions of Reforms

The reform of political parties legislation and regulation can act as a platform from which to consider a wide array of crucial issues in the development of a stable and lasting democratic party system. These include, inter alia, political party financing, internal party democracy, the participation of women, registration and monitoring of political parties.

In partnership with the OSCE`s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and with the financial support of the European Union, Denys Kovryzhenko and his colleagues at the Agency for Legislative Initiatives (ALI), led an in-depth consultative process with key stakeholders in Ukraine on the issue of political party legislation reform, raising problems and proposing possible solutions.

The result is Regulation of Political Parties in Ukraine: the Current State and Direction of Reforms, a comprehensive report which thoroughly analyses the particular problems and issues in Ukraine’s legislative and regulatory framework for political parties. Looking forward, and based on the results of the consultations, the report proposes an agenda for reform based on international European standard and best practice.

This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union, within the framework of a joint project of the European Union and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).

On 8-10 December 2006, Donetsk hosted a public forum to discuss the efficiency of political parties in Ukraine, their problems and prospects”. The discussion was initiated and organised by the Agency for Legislative Initiates (Kyiv), the Centre for Legislative Initiatives (Donetsk), the Council of Europe, and a number of expert institutions of Lutsk, Sumy, Zaporizhzhya, Luhansk, and Kherson. The Forum was also supported by the joint European Commission and Council of Europe initiative for democratic development.

The forum primarily aimed to outline the problems of the party system in Ukraine, as well as to consider the ways to improve the efficiency of participation of political parties in the political processes in the context of democratic transformations. In particular, the following issues were discussed:

• Ideological basis of political parties in Ukraine;
• Institutional and staff capacity;
• Efficiency of public oversight of political parties;
• Ways to ensure and improve the efficiency of the legislation on political parties;
• Funding of political activities;
• Transparency of party finance and political corruption;
• Constitutional reform and political responsibility;
• Ways to ensure responsibility of political parties to the voters; and
• Results and prospects of the proportional representation election system with closed lists.

The forum collected about 100 participants from 19 regions of Ukraine:

1) Members of the Verkhovna Rada (V. Skubenko, V. Stretovych, V. Ivanov);

2) Members of local councils and other local self-governance representatives (О. Beznis, А.Demura, D.Bezuhlyi, Yu. Bova, V. Bohdanov, А. Bodrov, М. Hrekov, О. Vitryanyi, S.Zelinskyi, А. Ivanov, О.Kryshko, О. Krukivskyi, М. Levchenko, Yu. Mindyuk, D.Tkachenko and others);

3) Political parties local representatives (V. Bukhtiarova, О. Dzekanyuk, А. Klymenko, V.Levytskyi and others);

4) NGO and think tank experts (І. Kohut, Chairman of the Board of the Agency for Legislative Initiates; R.Kovalenko, Director of the Centre for Legislative Initiatives; R. Kobets, Analytical Director of the Ideal Country Project; О. Lytvynenko, Leading Policy and Law Expert of Razumkov Centre; О.Miroshnyk, Director of Local Democracy Foundation (Kharkiv); Е.Rakhimkulov, Co-Director of the Parliamentary Development Project of Ukraine and others);

5) Scholars (М. Prymush, Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor, Head of Political Sciences Chair of Donetsk National University; О. Shcherbanyuk, Assistant Professor of the Constitutional, Administrative, and Financial Law Chair of the School of Law of Chernivtsi National University and others);

6) Media (S. Maksymova, Editor-in-Chief of the Legal Journal; О. Kharchenko, UNIAN Editor-in-Chief and others).

Also, the forum was attended by representatives of the CoE Directorate General for Political Affairs and other international institutions (J. Gützkow, Director of the NGO and Civil Society Office of the CoE DGPA; P.Nikolov, CoE DGPA Political Advisor; О. Papernyi, NGO and Democratic Governance Expert, OSCE Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Office (Warsaw); and Ye. Radchenko, OSCE Project Coordinator Office in Ukraine).

Forum Programme:

• Plenary Session: „Modern Political Parties in Ukraine and Problems of Their Participation in Political Processes in the Context of Democratic Transformations”;
• Round Table: “Quality of Political Parties and Party Finance”;
• Round Table: “Parties, Election System and Political Responsibility”; and
• Announcement of the Address to Political Parties and Non-Governmental Organisations and its discussion.

Plenary Session

In his welcoming address to the forum participants, Ihor KOHUT, Chairman of the Board of the Agency for Legislative Initiates wished them a constructive dialogue in the framework of a broad public and political discussion on the place and role of political parties in the modern political system of Ukraine, as well as proposed to assess the efficiency and prospects of the domestic party building in the context of democratic transformations. Uta GUTSKOV, Director of the NGO and Civil Society Office of the CoE DGPA outlined the priorities of the CoE-Ukraine cooperation in the context of support to the party building and informed on the measures planned to be implemented in Ukraine with the support of the Council of Europe.  Roman KOVALENKO, Director of the Centre for Legislative Initiatives defined a number of special interest problems concerning the assessment of the efficiency of political parties in Ukraine, in particular the inefficiency of the proportional representation election system, excessive politicisation of local councils, failure of political parties to meet their election promises, low legislative activity and improper quality of bills submitted for the parliamentary consideration.

At the discussion part of the plenary session, Denys KOVRYZHENKO, the Agency expert systemically presented the problems related to the development of the Ukrainian party system, mentioned the factors that cause them, and proposed certain steps to strengthen the role of political parties in Ukraine. MP Volodymyr STRETOVYCH raised the problem of the staffing of political parties and stressed the necessity to cover the gap and settle the conflict between political parties and the society. MP Volodymyr SKUBENKO put forward his own vision of the role of political parties in the modern world focusing especially on the responsibility of political parties to the people as the basis for the development of a balanced system of power in Ukraine. MP Volodymyr IVANOV spoke about the problem of party discipline and underlined the importance of the capacity to work in the opposition.

Round Table: “Quality of Political Parties and Party Finance

The main issues concerned the weakness or lack of the ideological basis of the modern political parties in Ukraine, inefficiency of political parties in the period between elections, the necessity to optimise the financial basis of political parties to improve their quality. Also the participants discussed the problems of the gap between the elected representatives on the one hand and political parties and voters on the other after elections, lack of the mechanism of the mandatory reporting of party members on their activity, switch of the decision-making centre from party bodies to factions, weakness of the party staff reserve, lack of transparency of the incomes and expenses of the party budgets. The issue of the political parties’ sources of funding divided the audience; one part insisted on the necessity to extend their list, while the other advocated its contraction. The discussion was moderated by Roman KOBETS, Analytical Director of the Ideal Country Project.

Round Table: “Parties, Election System and Political Responsibility”

The participants focused on the discussion of such issues, as efficiency of the election system, constitutional reform and the ways to ensure the responsibility of political parties, operation of political parties in the period between elections, decision-making mechanisms and internal party discipline. The main subject of the discussion was the efficiency of the proportional representation party system with closed lists for local councils. The majority of the audience agreed that this system has proved efficient at the national level as promoting the political structuring of the society. However, it needs to be modified for the application at the local level through introduction of open election lists. The discussion was moderated by Yevhen RADCHENKO, OSCE Project Coordinator Office in Ukraine.

Address

On the results of the forum, its participants adopted the Address to Political Parties and Non-Governmental Organisations where they expressed their hope that political parties would become true agents of national, regional, and local politics by turning into a sole “path to power” and opening the way to further deconcentration and ideological structuring of the Ukrainian society. The main emphasis was made on the necessity to overcome the deficiencies of closed lists and one-stage nomination of candidates which decreases the role of local party organisations. The Address also contains a call to make decisive transformation of political parties by means of:

• Reconsideration of the efficiency of closed lists for the elections to councils of all levels;
• Stimulation of the internal party democracy;
• Clearly-defined ideological position and formation of programme positions on the basis of internal party discussions;
• Establishment of cooperation between party representatives in authorities and party organisations;
• Establishment of mechanisms of political education of political party members and supporters, as well as dissemination of information on the successful experience of organisation of work;
• The necessity of periodical reporting of party representatives in authorities on their activities;
• Drastic reorganisation of work of central party bodies that coordinate the operation of factions in local councils;
• Public refusal from the morally doubtful sources of funding.

A special emphasis was made on the necessity to apply European standards of political party activities in terms of their efficiency assessment criteria, amendment of legislation on political parties, dissemination of conclusions made at the forum among the members of the Verkhovna Rada and local self-governance representatives.

The forum was broadly covered in the media. Altogether, about 40 media representatives participated in the forum. The issued raised at the discussion will find their continuation and development at the next public forum that will be dedicated to the constitutional reform issues and is expected to take place on 15-17 February 2007.

You can find also:

• Agenda of the PUBLIC FORUM “EFFICIENCY OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN UKRAINE: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS”.
• List of participants of the PUBLIC FORUM “EFFICIENCY OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN UKRAINE: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS”.
• Analytics, made by the experts of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives for the PUBLIC FORUM “EFFICIENCY OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN UKRAINE: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS”.
• The Address to Political Parties and Non-Governmental Organisations on the PUBLIC FORUM “EFFICIENCY OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN UKRAINE: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS”.