Ukraine's parliament backs changes to Constitution confirming Ukraine's path toward EU, NATO

February 10, 2019 (UNIAN) The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has backed amendments to the Constitution on Ukraine's path to the European Union and NATO, according to an UNIAN correspondent. A total of 334 deputies of 385 registered in the session hall have supported the law. As UNIAN reported earlier, the Verkhovna Rada on September 20, 2018 sent to the Constitutional Court a presidential bill amending Ukraine's Constitution regarding the strategic course of the state for obtaining full membership of Ukraine in the EU and NATO (No. 9037). On November 22, 2018, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine green-lighted the bill. The same day, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the bill in its first reading.

The law proposes that Ukraine's irreversible course toward European and Euro-Atlantic integration be stipulated in the preamble of the Fundamental Law along with the confirmation of European identity of the Ukrainian people. Article 85 suggests defining that the powers of the Verkhovna Rada include determining the foundations of domestic and foreign policy, implementing the state's strategic course for obtaining full membership of Ukraine in the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Article 102 is supplemented with the provision that "the president of Ukraine is the guarantor of the implementation of the state's strategic course for obtaining Ukraine's full membership in the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization." Read also Ukraine elections one of Central Europe's most serious challenges in decades – Rzeczpospolita Article 116 is amended with a new clause, according to which the Cabinet of Ministers "ensures the implementation of the state's strategic course for obtaining Ukraine's full membership in the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization." At the same time, Clause 14 of Section 15 "Transitional Provisions" is proposed to be excluded from the Constitution. It says that the use of existing military bases on the territory of Ukraine for the temporary stationing of foreign military formations is possible on a lease basis in the manner determined by international treaties of Ukraine ratified by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

Ukrainian members of parliament of the Verkhovna Rada, the Supreme Council of Ukraine, vote on a bill in Kyiv on Dec. 6, 2018, to terminate the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership with Russia from April 1, 2019.