Kyiv, December 21, 2015. Over the first nine months of their activity, IFU (interfactional union) “EuroOptimists” in cooperation with NGOs and expert community developed and lobbied for the adoption of revolutionary laws in various fields. MPs held a series of public meetings, established contacts with diplomats and facilitated decision-making in favor of Ukraine on the international scene. Members of parliament consider it a symbolic achievement that “EuroOptimists” managed to become a successful model of association of various political forces for the sake of common principles, whose activities are not affected by the interests of big business. “To be successful in the 21st Century, we must act for the team result. Otherwise, neither Ukraine nor we will achieve quality life,” said Oleksiy Mushak, MP (“Petro Poroshenko Bloc” faction), IFU “EuroOptimists” member, during the presentation of IFU “EuroOptimists” report at the press briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center.
“We have co-authored a number of revolutionary draft laws and continued the reforms initiated by various NGOs and analytical centers in recent decades,” said Svitlana Zalishchuk, MP (“Petro Poroshenko Bloc” faction), IFU “EuroOptimists” coordinator. Legislative work was carried out in almost all areas. The draft laws relating to energy sector reform, civil service, national police and implementation of anti-corruption legislation became headline-making. In energy sphere, the most important achievements were the law “On transparency in extractive industries”, the law “On renewable energy sources” and “On the natural gas market”, which also contains “EuroOptimists” recommendations. According to Oleksiy Ryabchyn, MP (“Batkivshchyna” faction), IFU “EuroOptimists member, all these laws considerably de-oligarchize and demonopolize energy sector. This year was crucial in the fight against corruption due to adopting the law “On prevention of political corruption”, which provides for funding political parties from the state budget.”It will be done only in exchange for total transparency of political parties. Those parties which can report on their expenditures and revenues within the law, will be funded from the state budget and will not depend on oligarchs,” said Serhiy Leshchenko, MP (“Bloc Poroshenko” faction), IFU “EuroOptymists” member,one of the ideologists of the draft law. “Besides, the law “On transparency of state registers” is very important. Transparency of registers allows journalists in their investigations to freely receive information about government employees and thus effectively expose corruption. The law “On Civil Service” has also become a revolutionary achievement,” added he. “Now public servants of all ranks in all the regions of Ukraine will be appointed based on an open competition,” said Alyona Shkrum, MP (“Batkivshyna” faction), IFU “EuroOptymists” member. The IFU members noted that all draft laws were drawn up in close cooperation with the public sector. Besides, a series of round tables, expert discussions and clarification meetings were organized, in particular, concerning the decentralization reform.
An important area of IFU “EuroOptymists” focus was diplomatic activity through representative bodies of various international organizations, such as PACE, OSCE, Inter-Parliamentary Union, the Political Committee of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the Energy Community and Economic Forum in Davos. According to the politicians, through meetings they managed to establish a “system of personal contacts at the highest level” to facilitate decision-making in favor of Ukraine. “Through this activity in the Parliamentary Assemblies we manage to achieve significant positive results for the country, – namely to pass resolutions favorable for Ukraine, to ensure their support by our colleagues who do not always support a primary initiative with enthusiasm, but after some additional work with, they switch from doubts to support,” said Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, MP (” Petro Poroshenko Bloc” faction), IFU “EuroOptymists” member.
In 2016, IFU “EuroOptymists” members plan to work on key reforms stipulated by the Coalition Agreement and the EU Association Agreement. The main areas of work include fight against corruption, electoral reform and the law on referendum, stock market development, tax reform, continuation of reform of public administration, energy sector and law enforcement system.
