Provisions of draft coalition agreement revealed
The Party of Regions and the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko have already developed a working variant of an agreement on forming a parliamentary majority.
According to Kommersant-Ukraine daily (#222 dated December 8, 2008), referring to its sources, the document is of a declarative character, and consists of two parts. The first sets out principles on which the majority is formed, and the second – regulations of its activities.
One of the provisions reads that “the coalition absolutely refuses attempts of solving ideological issues”. “It means that the BYuT faction refuses to support Ukraine’s joining NATO, while the Party of Regions undertakes not to press for introduction the Russian language as the second state one, and other similar topics”, a source explained to Kommersant.
In line with the coalition agreement, Ukraine may enter any military unions only after a national referendum. Besides, the agreement stipulates a “profound constitutional reform”. “The text of the Main Law [the Constitution] will be radically changed, no concrete details are revealed. However, without any doubt, after these amendments are introduced, Ukraine will turn into a parliamentary republic”, the Kommersant’s interlocutor said.
A significant part of the document is devoted to principles of leading the country out of the economic crisis. In particular, it includes provisions stipulating to introduce amendments into land property legislation, and a “radical judicial reform”. According to the information of the edition, the author of the amendments into judicial legislation was ex-President’s Kuchma former Chief of Staff Victor Medvedchuk.
The document does not include any principles of distribution of posts among the factions.
On behalf of BYuT, the document was developed by Vice Speaker Mykola Tomenko, and a faction deputy leader Andriy Portnov. At the same time, BYuT faction members refused to comment on the issue.