On June 16, the first meeting of the Security Committee on the reform of the Security Service of Ukraine took place. MPs considered only 2 amendments from more than 2400 ones. Number of MPs submitted the amendments prepared by the SBU.
The AntAC has previously described the details of these amendments and who submitted them. The SBU prepared special instructions for the amendments, which were submitted by the MPs from different factions under their control literally like photocopies.
Some of the MPs, for instance, Iryna Vereshchuk and Serhiy Ionushas, started a scandal at the request of the SBU officers present at the meeting and delayed the consideration of the draft law by the Committee.
The SBU was represented by the First Deputy Chairman, Head of the Scandalous Department “K” Vasyl Malyuk. That is, the head of the unit, which is to be liquidated as a result of the reform, came to talk to the MPs about the reform of the Service representing the SBU.
“It is nonsense that a person whose department should be liquidated is going to the Rada to speak about the reform of the Service. It seems that the SBU wants to persuade MPs to remain such a precious department for self-enrichment. After all, a staff member of the Security Service of Ukraine, who has been working there since 2001, has made a good fortune, ”commented Olena Shcherban, a member of the CPC board.
The Committee was also attended by representatives of the International Advisory Group on SBU Reform, which consists of representatives of NATO, the EU and the US Embassy.
NATO Ambassador to Ukraine Alexander Vinnikov noted the positive intention to deprive the SBU of its investigative functions, demilitarize it and take away opportunities to interfere in economic investigations. He also called the SBU reform a historic opportunity for Ukraine to move forward and stressed that the adoption of the law could be a significant step towards integration with NATO and the EU.
For this to happen, the MPs and the SBU must simply stop blocking the reform. Of course, it is still far from perfect. What else needs to change for the reform to become real and bring Ukraine closer to the best practices of NATO countries, read here and here.