The law, which amends the procedure of the preliminary approval and adoption by the parliament of the bill to amend the Fundamental Law of Ukraine, was published in Holos Ukrainy (Voice of Ukraine) parliamentary newspaper on January 29.

Passed by Rada and signed by Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko on Thursday, the law comes into effect on January 30, the following day after publishing.

As reported, during the morning sitting on January 28, the Verkhovna Rada amended its regulations over preliminary approval and adoption of the bill introducing changes into Ukraine's Fundamental Law. Poroshenko signed the document four hours later.

In particular, lawmakers have approved the following norm of the regulations: "In case the bill introducing amendments into the Constitution…was preliminary approved by the Verkhovna Rada and following this was not considered on the next regular session, then this bill should be discussed by the parliament on the next regular session."

The Verkhovna Rada on August 31 preliminarily approved the bill (No. 2217 а/ P1) that names a bill introducing Constitutional amendments as enacted if it was preliminary approved by the majority of the parliament and received on its regular session not less than 300 votes of MPs. At the same time, experts say for now there are no 300 necessary votes, as the majority of deputies see this as a means to legalize the special status of the certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

According to the schedule, the last plenary week of the current session is January 25-29 and the closing of the third session of the eighth Rada's convocation will be held on February 2. An opening of the 4th session is planned on the same day.

On January 19, Ukraine's Constitutional Court received a constitutional petition from 51 MPs requesting as official interpretation of the provisions of Article 155 of the Fundamental Law, namely, "at the next regular session of the Verkhovna Rada." The Court will consider this petition on January 29.

As reported, deputies have appealed to the Court with regard to the lack of votes for the final vote on the president's bill (No. 2217a/P1) amending Ukraine's Constitution with respect to power decentralization. The adoption of constitutional changes is envisaged by Minsk Agreements that is why Poroshenko's bill contains a provision that requires a separate law to define peculiarities of the local self-governance in certain Donetsk and Luhansk districts.

However, the head of the Petro Poroshenko Block's parliamentary faction Yuriy Lutsenko said that the Verkhovna Rada has 300 votes, the minimum required for the final approval of the bill amending the Constitution in terms of decentralization, but it is unreasonable to vote for this as aggressor makes no steps to promote resolution of the situation in Donbas.