The draft law banning the UOC-MP will be considered only in August - it is to be the first draft law to be considered by MPs. The parliamentary sessions scheduled for this week have been cancelled, according to MP Oleksiy Honcharenko.
According to MP Yuliya Klymenko, the Servants of the People expressed a desire to revise the text of the draft law once again, so they will not vote on the document this week.
And since the rostrum will be blocked until the bill is considered, they will not be able to vote on anything else. At the same time, MPs are planning to meet in the third week of August.
The ban on the UOC-MP is supported by representatives of all parliamentary factions and groups, except for the OPFL. Most of the servants of the people also support it, but not the leadership of the faction, Honcharenko said.
Today, after voting to extend martial law, a large number of MPs blocked the rostrum, demanding that the ban on the UOC-MP be included in the agenda. The speaker refused to put it on the agenda and announced a break for consultations. Not only opposition members, but also servants of the people, including the head of the relevant committee, Mykyta Poturayev, joined the blockade. The leadership of the factions went to a meeting with the Speaker of the Parliament, but the blocking of the rostrum continued. The MPs promised to block it until the Rada considered the draft law.
Banning the UOC-MP
The draft law banning religious organisations associated with the aggressor country was adopted in the first reading in October. It makes it impossible for religious organisations managed from the aggressor country to operate in Ukraine. The amendments give the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience additional powers:
- ensuring the implementation of the state policy on religions and the church by conducting religious studies expertise of the activities of religious organisations to identify subordination in canonical and organisational matters with the centres of influence of a religious organisation (association) whose governing centre (management) is located outside Ukraine in a state that carries out armed aggression against Ukraine
- issuing orders to eliminate violations identified as a result of a religious expertise within one month from the date of issuance of such an order
- filing a lawsuit with the court to terminate the activities of a religious organisation in case of failure to comply with the orders to eliminate violations identified as a result of religious expertise.
- The document was expected to be adopted in the second reading on the anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion, but failed.
In May, after the rostrum was blocked, MPs agreed that in June they would consider the bill banning the UOC-MP in the second reading. However, the MPs were not sure that there would be enough votes in the hall, so they decided to collect signatures in support of the ban before putting it on the agenda. The conciliation board agreed not to create a single list for collecting signatures for the bill. At first, the factions collected signatures separately, and then they were to be combined into one list to make it clear whether there would be enough votes in the parliament.
As of 26 June, more than 140 MPs had not signed in support of the ban on the UOC-MP. Representatives of the European Solidarity and Voice factions signed the bill ‘On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on the Activities of Religious Organisations in Ukraine’ (No. 8371) in full.
LB.ua received a list of those who refused to sign. Among those who did not support the bill, about 90 MPs are from the Servant of the People party. Two from Batkivshchyna did not support the bill. Only one MP from the Platform for Life and Peace (formerly OPFL) supported the signature.
As of 21 July, according to LB.ua's sources, more than 60 MPs from the Servant of the People party have not yet signed in support of the bill banning the UOC-MP and do not intend to support it in the second reading. More than 30 other servants are still hesitant to support the ban on the UOC-MP.