Amendments to Constitution can be approved at any session of Verkhovna Rada – Constitutional Court’s ruling

Voting for the final amendments to the Constitution can take place at any session of the Verkhovna Rada, not at the session immediately after that the amendments were pre-approved at.

Such a conclusion can be made on the basis of the ruling of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, published by the press-service of the Court.

The Constitutional Court explains that the constitutional amendments can be passed at a regular not a special session and the Parliament itself can stipulate in the regulations what next session specifically the constitutional amendments can be passed as a whole at.

“The Verkhovna Rada may stipulate in the Regulations of the Verkhovna Rada the possibility of passing a bill on the constitutional amendments as a law at a later regular session of the Verkhovna Rada complying with the provisions of Section 13 (Amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine) of the Fundamental Law of Ukraine,” the Constitutional Court ruled.

In January, 51 Ukrainian MPs appealed to the Constitutional Court with the request to explain the provisions of Article 155 of the Constitution regarding the procedure for amending the Constitution.

The Article states that “A draft law on introducing amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine (…) previously adopted by the majority of the constitutional composition of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, is deemed to be adopted, if at the next regular session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, no less than two-thirds of the constitutional composition of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine have voted in favor thereof.”

The lawmakers asked the Constitutional Court to clarify whether the words “next” and “regular” mean the session which comes directly after the session which the bill was pre-approved at, or any other following session.