The Cabinet of Ministers has registered two draft laws with the Verkhovna Rada aimed at meeting European Payments Council requirements for Ukraine's accession to the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), and has also initiated tougher penalties for financial violations.
The first bill, No. 15501, proposes amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses and the Criminal Code to protect whistleblowers in the field of preventing and combating the legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime, terrorism financing and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, Cabinet of Ministers representative to the Verkhovna Rada Taras Melnychuk said on Monday.
The bill proposes administrative liability for officials who coerce an employee into resignation, subject them to disciplinary action or take other retaliatory measures over reporting violations of financial monitoring legislation, as well as for the unlawful disclosure of a whistleblower's identity. It also proposes criminal liability for the unlawful dismissal of such an employee.
Bill No. 15503 proposes amendments to the Civil Code on protecting the personal non-property rights of legal entities and their authorized representatives in cases of knowingly false or unintentional reporting or public disclosure of inaccurate information about financial monitoring violations. The document also establishes a right of reply for those whose rights have been violated and exempts individuals from liability for damages in cases of unintentional publication of inaccurate data.
The government has also registered bill No. 15504, amending the Code of Administrative Offenses to toughen penalties for violations of financial legislation. The bill proposes extending the statute of limitations for administrative liability (Article 38) and raising fines for the relevant violations (Article 164-2).
The bills' texts were not available on the parliament's website as of Monday evening, Aug. 10.
As reported, parliament's finance, tax and customs policy committee chairman Danylo Hetmantsev has said that free decision-making on SEPA is complicated by lawmakers' reservations about tougher financial monitoring. In April, the finance committee recommended adopting alternative bill No. 14327-1 on Ukraine's SEPA accession as a basis for drafting a new version.
Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting (IER) lead expert Oleksandra Betliy said SEPA is an important element of Ukraine's plan under the Ukraine Facility program for next year, and that under the World Bank's DPO program the indicator was to have been met in H1 or H2 of this year, speaking during a presentation of the July IMF Program and EU Assistance Monitor by the RRR4U think tank consortium.
She explained that previous government initiatives had been withdrawn from parliament under procedural rules because they had not been adopted even in a first reading, forcing the Cabinet of Ministers to restart the approval process.
"All bills that were not adopted at least in a first reading or as a basis are automatically withdrawn from parliament. Right now, bills tied to many indicators have disappeared from parliament. For them to return to parliament and be submitted by the government, the Cabinet of Ministers needs to push these bills through all its lengthy procedures. The SEPA bill was very unpopular with many," Betliy said.
She said an alternative bill submitted by lawmakers, No. 14327-1, remains in parliament and, according to available information, satisfies the World Bank and the EU for adoption in a first reading, though government consent is needed for it to advance further. She stressed that businesses, which would benefit from cheaper transactions, are the main ones suffering from the delay in SEPA accession, while lawmakers fear the possible impact of the financial monitoring provisions.
