KIEV, July 27 /TASS/. Ukraine’s Constitutional Court is starting to consider amendments to Ukraine’s constitution, the main stumbling point on the way to political settlement in Eastern Ukraine, on Monday.
Constitutional reform in Ukraine is a basic requirement of the package of measures for the settlement of the Donbas conflict (Minsk-2), which was approved by the "Normandy Four" leaders and later signed by the parties in conflict in Minsk on February 12, 2015.
According to this document, Ukraine is supposed to adopt a new Constitution before the end of 2015. Power decentralization /with account taken of the peculiarities of separate districts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions and with prior consultations with representatives of these districts/ should be its key element. The second important requirement is that the special status of separate districts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions should be fixed permanently in Ukraine’s new constitution.
A supplement to the package of measures clearly enumerates measures, which the Kiev government should take in accordance with the law "On Special Form of Local Self-Government in separate districts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions" adopted as early as in October 2014. They include an amnesty, the right to language self-determination and participation of local authorities in appointing the heads of prosecutor offices and courts; a possibility to conclude agreements with the central bodies of power and create a police force by decision of local power bodies; the impossibility to terminate the powers of deputies and officials elected at local elections pre-term.
Nevertheless, Ukraine finds it hard to implement the political part of the Minsk agreements. Kiev does every step in this direction under international pressure.