Pochaiv Lavra lawyer sends request to VR Speaker

The lawyer of the Pochaiv Holy Dormition Lavra sent a lawyer's request to the head of parliament Ruslan Stefanchuk.

In a commentary to the UOJ, the lawyer said the following:

“On April 3, 2023, draft 9179 of the Decree on the appeal of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on the termination of the lease agreement for the complexes of buildings of the Pochaiv Assumption Lavra with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was registered at the Verkhovna Rada.

The preliminary consideration of the project was carried out by the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Humanitarian and Information Policy of Ukraine (led by N. Poturaev) within 2 working days without taking into account the conclusions of other committees determined by those responsible for its consideration, without assessing the compliance with the provisions of the European Union law in terms of the implementation of international legal obligations of Ukraine.

Such actions of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy of Ukraine are a violation of Art. 93 of the Regulations and testifies to a biased attitude towards resolving the issue identified in the draft Resolution.

A government that declares respect for its obligations to the European Union under the Statute of the Council of Europe cannot openly violate the Constitution and its own Regulations.

In this connection, relevant requests were sent to the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk regarding the provision of documents and information on compliance with the established procedure for considering draft acts of the single legislative body of Ukraine.”

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that on April 7, 2023, MP from the Servant of the People faction, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy Nikita Poturaev said that the authorities intend to follow the same path with the Pochaiv Lavra as with the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.