EMAIL DETAILS

I thought you would be interested in a new initiative, called the "Jean
Monnet Dialogues," for the Ukrainian parliament. It is described below. At
the first dialogue in October, the Prime Minister, the Speaker, and leaders
of seven factions overcame their political differences to reach agreement
on four key areas of parliamentary procedure. The process and outcome
surrounding this first event have set the stage for future cross-party
cooperation within the Rada on broader democratic reforms. NDI is
partnering with the European Parliament and the Norway-based Oslo Center on
this program. We are encouraged with the progress to date.


Best wishes for the holiday season and new year.


Ken

Kenneth Wollack
President
National Democratic Institute
455 Massachusetts Ave., NW, 8th Floor
Washington, DC 20001
202-728-5500 <(202)%20728-5500> (Tel)
888-875-2887 <(888)%20875-2887> (Fax)
email: ken@ndi.org
website: www.ndi.org


Ukraine: Consensus-Building Efforts Lay Groundwork for Cross-Party Reform
Efforts

Ukraine’s parliament (Verkhovna Rada) is in a race to deliver the sweeping
democratic reforms demanded by Ukrainians during the Revolution of Dignity.
However, faced with an economic crisis and ongoing war, parties in
parliament have struggled to enact these policies. Current legislative
procedures and fragmented political dynamic among parliamentary factions
have only compounded the challenges of pushing through changes. Public
frustration with the pace of reform has risen sharply over the last year,
and time is running out to deliver on the promises made on the Maidan.
Developing
a culture of consensus building among parties at the national level is an
important step to ensuring that these national reforms, which are crucial
to safeguarding Ukraine’s successful democratic transition, are enacted.

It was thus a significant achievement when, over three days in October
2016, the Prime Minister and Parliamentary Speaker of Ukraine joined
leaders from seven parliamentary factions at the Jean Monnet House near
Paris to demonstrate their commitment to building consensus around key
institutional reforms in the Rada. The negotiations resulted in an
agreement among the seven factions to implement four reform priorities and
plans to establish a parliamentary working group that will oversee the
implementation of these policies. This agreement represented a breakthrough
in Ukrainian parliamentary cooperation and will serve as a foundation for
further cross-faction collaboration.

The October conference was part of a larger consensus-building process,
known as the Jean Monnet Dialogues (the Dialogues). This process began
earlier in 2016, when the Rada adopted all 52 recommendations outlined in
the European Parliament’s Report on Internal Reform and Capacity-Building
in the Rada
<http://www.europarl.europa.eu/resources/library/media/20160229RES16408/20160229RES16408.pdf>
, also known as the “Cox Report,” after Pat Cox, former President of the
European Parliament. Chapter six of the report provides guidance relating
to building trust and consensus within and among parties in parliament.
Given the National Democratic Institute’s (NDI) experience supporting
cross-party cooperation and consensus building in Ukraine, the authors of
the report asked NDI to work jointly with the European Parliament team and
the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights (the Oslo Center) to help the
Rada implement the chapter-six proposals. With the European Parliament’s
technical knowledge of parliamentary procedure and the Oslo Center’s
expertise in Norwegian coalition politics as well as its track record in
facilitating coalition and consensus-building study trips, the three
institutions are complementary partners.

Based on the Cox report recommendations, NDI, the European Parliament, and
the Oslo Center jointly developed the Dialogues, which are organized in
cycles. Each stage of a cycle is designed to give participants experience
in building consensus across party lines as they work toward the common
goals of implementing the Report recommendations. The stages include
preparatory meetings in Kyiv followed by more structured, cross-party
meetings at the Jean Monnet house, a historic property owned by the
European Parliament and used as a conference site. For example, in the
lead-up to the first conference in October, NDI and the European Parliament
facilitated a series of preliminary consultations in Kyiv among faction
leaders and parliamentary staff to agree upon the rules of engagement,
attendees, format, and substantive issues for discussion at the conference.
Once parliament begins to implement the steps agreed upon in October, the
faction leaders and staff will begin the next cycle of dialogues, focusing
on another set of recommendations.

During the October conference, the discussion focused on four topics: 1)
requiring the government to provide “white papers” when it submits
legislation for consideration; 2) requiring annual ministry reports to the
Rada; 3) considering the adoption of proportional representation (the
D’Hondt method) to determine the party composition of Rada committees; and
4) regulating the status of the parliamentary opposition. The conference
concluded with a joint statement that affirmed these priorities and called
for the establishment of a cross-party parliamentary working group to
oversee the implementation of these, and future, reforms. The working group
was formally established in November.

The Jean Monnet Dialogues have benefit beyond reforming parliamentary
procedures in Ukraine. The factions see the process as a way to change the
political culture of Ukraine. By helping party leaders to work across party
lines, the dialogues are establishing a lasting framework to achieve the
broader democratic reforms demanded by Ukrainians on the Maidan