Poroshenko asks Rada to abolish the much criticised EU changes to the e-Declaration
The President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko submitted to the Verkhovna Rada the draft laws “On amendments to the Tax code” and “On amendments to some legislative acts regarding ensuring the transparency of information on the financing of the activities of public associations and the use of international technical assistance”.
The relevant bills proposed to abolish compulsory e-Declaration of anti-corruption civil society organizations, which had previously been criticized within the European Union.
The Deputy Head of the presidential administration Shimkiv said that the bills proposed transparency of public organizations and those of individuals-entrepreneurs who received funds from donors and international technical assistance. He also stressed that public reporting should serve all public organizations without regard to specialization and sources of income. However, the reports will relate solely to the activities of organizations and will not contain information on the property, or any property of such institutions or their officials.
We will remind, on March 27, President Petro Poroshenko signed the controversial amendments to the law on e-Declaration. In accordance with the new amendments, certain categories of military personnel are exempt from the requirement to provide statements about income, but to file e-Declaration now required of all representatives of public organizations. This decision provoked mixed reaction from the public.
The Chairman of the delegation of European Union to Ukraine Hugh Mingarelli expressed concern over these changes in relation to the anti-corruption pressure on public organizations and urged the Ukrainian authorities not to interfere with their activities.