Draft Law No. 8371 on banning the UOC-MP will be considered at the first session of the Verkhovna Rada in almost a month. However, discussions about the content of the document will still be held.
Mykyta Poturaiev, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy and a member of the 'Servant of the People' faction, stated this in an interview with Glavkom.
"The Conciliation Board decided that we are going to take up this issue (amendments to the bill banning the Moscow Church - Ed.) and consider it. There are no other options. However, the Conciliation Board has a proposal for two amendments that our committee should consider. Then, said amendments will be put to the vote. Interestingly, these proposals are not written in the decision of the Conciliation Board," the MP said.
According to Poturaiev, the first amendment is about the expert commission for verifying the Church's affiliation with foreign centers of influence, which is now to be created by the State Service for Ethnic Policy (more precisely, by the government), should also be formed with the participation of the Parliamentary Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy.
"The Americans had reservations, believing that such a commission should not be dependent on the executive branch. Yet, according to my initial assessment, the Verkhovna Rada cannot establish such commissions. While we can form our part in independent regulators or supervisory boards, we cannot do so in commissions essentially created by central executive authorities. It does not work this way. Moreover, it is dangerous as such decisions can be challenged in courts," the MP explained.
At the same time, Poturaiev argues that there are other options, such as reorganizing the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience and using it as the basis for an independent regulator, such as the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting or the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Utilities (NCREPU).
"This, however, requires a separate law, for if one creates an independent regulator, the latter can't be prescribed by amendments to other laws. And while we are not against this approach, the creation of a separate law on the Civil Service will take time," Poturaiev emphasized.
According to him, the second amendment is related to the plan to give the Church more to get rid of its affiliation and subordination to the Moscow Patriarchate.
"The plan is to change the six-month period prescribed in the bill to a year. To be honest, we in the committee do not understand this. We believe that half a year is more than enough. Too much, even. Still, at the meeting of the Conciliation Board, certain things were discussed behind closed doors, things that we cannot make public. So far, everything is rather unclear, so I and my colleagues from the Committee are not sure these terms should be extended," said the MP.
As reported previously, yesterday, the 'Servant of the People' faction, together with representatives of the Opposition Platform for Life, refused to consider the issue of banning the Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Later it became known that the conciliation board of parliamentary factions decided that the Verkhovna Rada would not work this week. This is explained by the unwillingness of some MPs to consider the bill banning the Moscow Church in Ukraine.
Earlier, at a meeting in May, MPs from European Solidarity blocked the rostrum of the Verkhovna Rada, demanding a decision to create a temporary investigative commission on fortifications and drones for the Armed Forces, as well as consideration of a bill on banning the UOC-MP.