The amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Transport” proposed by the draft bill №6514 have a number of inconsistencies with the Constitution, and the bill itself should not have been registered in parliament. With all the remarks, the UAC addressed the Verkhovna Rada Committees on Transport and Infrastructure, as well as the Verkhovna Rada Committees on the Rules of Procedure, Deputy Ethics and Organization of Work with a request to pay attention to them.

The draft bill №6514 aims to organize the legal and organizational basis for the establishment of the National Commission for State Regulation of Transport, which will report to the President of Ukraine and will be accountable to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. The President has the power to approve the provisions of the Commission, the number of staff and to appoint and dismiss the Chairman and members of the Commission.

However, according to the appeal, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine has repeatedly noted in its decisions that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the President of Ukraine in resolving issues of formation of public authorities and regulation of their activities are obliged to act only within the powers of the Constitution and the Laws of Ukraine.

“The Basic Law of Ukraine does not give the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine the right to determine in its acts the powers of the parliament and the head of the state, going beyond those established by constitutional norms. The Constitution of Ukraine also does not provide for the powers of the President of Ukraine to appoint and dismiss members of the Commission, to approve the Regulations on the Commission and the maximum number of its employees. Accordingly, the specified powers, enshrined in the Project №6514, go beyond the constitutional competence of the parliament and the head of state,” is mentioned in the statement.

In addition, at the time of registration of the draft bill №6514 in the parliament, the bill "On the National Commission for State Regulation of Transport" №3927 as of 07.22.2020 was already registered.

The norms of the document also provide for the establishment of the National Commission for State Regulation of Transport, as a permanent central executive body with a special status, which is formed, reorganized and liquidated by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. The purpose of its activities is state regulation, monitoring and control in the sector of transport.

That means, both projects regulate the same range of issues and essentially repeat the provisions on the regulation of the same social relations. Thus, the draft bill №6514 is an alternative to the aforementioned №3927. Therefore, according to the Rules of Procedure of the Verkhovna Rada, it should be submitted no later than 14 days after the day of providing the deputies with the first bill on the relevant issue. In fact, the draft bill №6514 was registered in Parliament on January 13, 2022, a year and a half after 3,927.

The adoption of the draft law №6514 should have been denied.

"It should be noted that these projects differ significantly in the depth of elaboration of the Commission’s powers and functions. The powers of the Commission given by the authors of the Project №6514 are of general, sometimes nominal nature, the procedure for which is uncertain. Also noteworthy is the lack of an integrated approach in Project 6514, which, in our opinion, is unjustified, as the Commission's functioning should not focus only on tariff issues, as transport activities are much wider and Regulations by the Commission should not be limited to transport tariffs. In this regard, Project №3927 provides more comprehensive and balanced regulation,” the UAC mentioned in the statement.