European Parliament monitors recommend suspension of Ukraine's membership if April 16 referendum is held (03/19/00)

European Parliament monitors recommend suspension
of Ukraine's membership if April 16 referendum is held

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The European Parliament and the Ukrainian government are finding themselves increasingly at loggerheads over the issue of a scheduled national referendum in Ukraine on proposed changes to the Constitution that would increase presidential authority and change the structure of the Verkhovna Rada.

On March 8 a monitoring committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) officially recommended to the larger body that Ukraine's membership in the international organization of legislatures be suspended if the country holds the national referendum scheduled for April 16.

The recommendation stated that the referendum was organized outside of specific procedures stipulated in Ukraine's Constitution and that, in its opinion, no referendums should be held until a new law on national referendums is passed by the country's Parliament.

President Leonid Kuchma delivered a stinging response to the monitoring committee's recommendation on March 13 in which he called the decision "unethical and incorrect." Barely concealing his irritation with the recommendation, Mr. Kuchma said, "I could have used other, choicer words."

Mr. Kuchma said he was dismayed that such a negative decision was made, particularly after his meeting with the two PACE rapporteurs from the monitoring committee had led him to believe that they would give a positive evaluation of the situation surrounding the referendum.

During their stay in Ukraine, the two PACE rapporteurs, Hanne Severinsen and Renata Wohlwend, had criticized the way the referendum had been organized and said that, at the very least, the questions presented should have been approved by the Verkhovna Rada, as is mandated in the Constitution of Ukraine.

Further friction has been caused by PACE insistence that a final decision on the referendum should depend on an evaluation by the Venetian Commission, a body of constitutional experts which is part of PACE. The Venetian Commission will rule on the propriety of the Ukrainian referendum at its regular session scheduled for March 31-April 2. PACE has invited members of Ukraine's government and the Constitutional Court to take part in the proceedings.

President Kuchma has said he does not believe Ukraine must abide by any decision of an outside political body and has said the only authority on the Ukrainian Constitution to which he would listen is the country's Constitutional Court.

The court is currently considering two separate petitions submitted by members of the Verkhovna Rada - both of which seek to cancel the referendum on constitutional grounds - and has said it will render its decision before the end of March.

President Kuchma has received much criticism for signing the executive order that decreed a national referendum. Although he maintains that he had no choice but to allow for "the will of the people," many others have said that the whole initiative was orchestrated by aides and cohorts of the president. According to critics, the move is a blatant attempt to secure absolute presidential power and make the legislature a pawn of the president.

Because much of the impetus that led to the referendum initiative came from the perception that the Verkhovna Rada could not and would not be able to work effectively in its present formation, many experts have come to believe that with the establishment of a pro-government parliamentary majority in the Verkhovna Rada the need for a referendum has diminished.

President Kuchma attacked that notion in an interview in the Kyiv newspaper Fakty on March 10, saying that without the national vote "there will be a threat of the majority falling apart."

"The referendum is needed to build into the Constitution the system of responsibility of each branch of power. If there is no such mechanism, the situation that has developed in the last six years is not going to change," said Mr. Kuchma.

He also restated his support for a bicameral Parliament on the grounds that an upper chamber of regional leaders would have the ability to block populist resolutions adopted by the lower chamber.

Serhii Holovatyi, a member of the Ukrainian delegation to PACE and an outspoken critique of President Kuchma who has spearheaded the effort to cancel the referendum, said on March 13 that much of PACE's concern centers on the results of similar national referendums held in countries that neighbor Ukraine. "Europe already has seen the outcome of such referendums in Belarus and Moldova," explained Mr. Holovatyi.

A 1996 constitutional referendum in Belarus overwhelmingly gave President Alyaksandr Lukashenko extended presidential powers and eventually led to diminished democracy and the curtailment of individual rights.

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