Today, the faction of the "People's Union Our Ukraine" party published a statement in Parliament regarding the inadmissibility of new privileges for current and former people's deputies of Ukraine. \n \n \nWe present the full text of the statement \n \nS T A T E M E N T \n \nof the deputy faction of the "People's Union Our Ukraine" party \n \n \n \n \nThe parliamentary faction of the "People's Union Our Ukraine" party declares the inadmissibility of new privileges for current and former people's deputies of Ukraine. In particular, we demand the cancellation of unjustifiably high pensions for people's deputies, which place an unbearable burden on the state budget. \n \nThe law "On Amendments to Article 20 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Status of a People's Deputy of Ukraine," which increases deputy pensions, was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on October 6 of the current year. It was prepared by a group of people's deputies of the current convocation, and was initiated by the board of the Association of People's Deputies of Ukraine of previous convocations, who are the main lobbyists for the implementation of such privileges. And this at a time when the absolute majority of pensioners throughout Ukraine receive pensions in the amount of several hundred hryvnias. The neglect of resolving the painful problems of every Ukrainian — including those regarding pension provision — clearly demonstrates how distant these would-be deputies are from their fellow citizens. It is a pity that the loss of the moral right to represent one's own people is not inevitably followed by the loss of legal grounds for deputy activity. \n \nThe President's remarks submitted to the Verkhovna Rada indicate that the provisions of the adopted law are not consistent with the norms of the Constitution of Ukraine and the Budget Code of Ukraine. The introduction of the adopted changes will significantly increase budget expenditures for the pension maintenance of people's deputies. Thus, if in 2005 20.7 million hryvnias were allocated for this, then in 2006 — as much as 124.1 million hryvnias. \n \nUnder such circumstances, the implementation of the law may lead to an imbalance of the State Budget of Ukraine, which would violate the requirements of part three of Article 95 of the Constitution of Ukraine and point 2 of part one of Article 7 of the Budget Code of Ukraine. This will cause underfunding of extremely necessary programs for the socio-economic development of the state. Moreover, in terms of entry into force, the draft law does not comply with Article 27 of the Budget Code of Ukraine at all. \n \nTherefore, the parliamentary faction of the "People's Union Our Ukraine" party demands the swiftest cancellation of the Law "On Amendments to Article 20 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Status of a People's Deputy of Ukraine." The people need people's elected representatives, not people's dependents. \n \n \n \nHead of the faction Mykola Martynenko \n