“The debates on parliamentary immunity has been taking place in Ukraine for a long time. In Europe, this institution allows politicians to be more secure, because they defend their values and ideas in society as representatives of the people. However, in European countries parliamentary immunity is limited by the time during which deputies go to work and return home, as well as during their stay in the parliament”, – said the leader of the European Party of Ukraine Mykola Katerynchuk on the one of the TV channels today.
“And if a deputy is detained at the crime scene, he is arrested. But if he criticizes the authorities from the rostrum in the parliament, no one has a right to touch him, and no one from the military or law enforcement agencies is allowed to parliament” – he added.
“I am personally for complete abolishment of parliamentary immunity, but we must understand that in the parliamentary-presidential republic power is concentrated mostly in the hands of parliamentarians. And if deputies ramain without immunity, the state from the parliamentary-presidential republic will quickly become the State of the Prosecutor General, who through open criminal proceedings will be able to control any deputy”, – said Mykola Katerynchuk.
“It is clear that under such conditions, deputies will serve not the people of Ukraine, but of the Prosecutor General, or more precisely, the President in the person of the Prosecutor General, since the last one is appointed by the President himself. In such a situation there is an actual usurpation of power in the state by the President”, – said Mykola Katerynchuk. – “That is why I am convinced that it is necessary to gather 300 votes of parliamentarians in order to change the Constitution of Ukraine, to cancel the parliamentary immunity in the way in which it exists now and to introduce a limited parliamentary immunity in accordance with European standards”.
Press service of the European Party of Ukraine