The working group of the National Constitutional Council has finished working over the draft edition of the new Constitution of Ukraine. According to Kommersant Ukraine daily (#71 (656)) of April 22, working group member Heorhiy Kriuchkov noted: “Today we have looked through the draft concept of renewing the Constitution – we outlined the most disputable positions, before putting it for consideration of the National Constitutional Council”.
According to the newspaper, another working group member unveiled that “at first there were numerous proposals to transfer to the presidential model of government, but, finally, the working group became firmly attached to the parliamentary-presidential republic, as it was already established in Ukraine and we must not refuse it”.
The source also informed that the draft Constitution stipulates depriving the President of his right to propose candidacies for posts of two Ministers – of Defense and Foreign Affairs. At the same time, the President will be responsible for two spheres – foreign policy, and national security and defense. Besides, the President will be removed from executive power in the economic sector. “The President will have rather broad authorities, but he will not have opportunity to command the government any more”, another working group member resumed.
The issue of president’s authorities is one of the key moments in the new edition of the Constitution.
Deputy chief of the Presidential Secretariat Maryna Stavniychuk said in an interview with Kommersant that the status of President, as a Guarantor of Constitution, will strengthen. Besides, his status will strengthen from the point of view of interaction and balance of state power bodies and local governments. At the same time, she noted that, to avoid consequences of dual power, it is proposed to delegate the executive authorities at the central level and by vertical to the Cabinet of Ministers.
A working group expert noted that the new edition of the Constitution does not include the notion of parliamentary coalition. According to him, “we came to a conclusion that the very notion of “coalition” must not be included into the Constitution – it is rather political than legal”.
According to the information of Kommersant, working group members could not determine their position on seven issues, including keeping the neutral status of Ukraine, granting Russian language a state or official status, and establishing a system of parliamentary and local elections.
