09:38 12.02.2019

Poroshenko says he will sign next week constitution changes on strategic course toward EU, NATO

2 min read
Poroshenko says he will sign next week constitution changes on strategic course toward EU, NATO

 President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko promises next week to sign the law on changes in the Constitution of Ukraine on the strategic course in the European Union and NATO.

"Next week, I will sign the changes to the Constitution. I hope it will be in parliament, in public," Poroshenko said, speaking at the annual investment conference Dragon Capital in Kyiv on Tuesday.

On Thursday, February 7, the Verkhovna Rada approved on the whole the changes initiated by the president to the Constitution of Ukraine regarding the country's course toward EU and NATO membership (Bill No. 9037).

Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy signed the law on the same day.

According to the constitutional amendments, the powers of the Verkhovna Rada will include "the implementation of the strategic course of the state to acquire Ukraine's full membership of the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization."

The president of Ukraine shall be the guarantor of the implementation of the strategic course of the state toward its membership of the EU and NATO. And the Cabinet of Ministers, in turn, will have to ensure the implementation of the strategic course toward Ukraine's membership of those organizations.

At the same time, the preamble of the Constitution of Ukraine will say that the Verkhovna Rada has confirmed "the European identity of the Ukrainian people and the irreversibility of the European and Euro-Atlantic course of Ukraine."

In addition, the clause that "the use of existing military bases on the territory of Ukraine for the temporary stay of foreign military formations is possible on lease terms in the manner determined by international treaties of Ukraine ratified by the Verkhovna Rada" is excluded from the transitional provisions of the Constitution.

The law amending the Constitution will enter into force on the day after its publication.

AD
AD
AD
AD