Constitutional reform is the basis of modern state formation
On September 23, 2014, a round table meeting «Constitutional reform is the basis of modern state-building» was held in the Zaporizhzhia Regional State Administration. The purpose of this project was to involve wide circles of the public in discussing the project of decentralization of the power system in Ukraine and determining the role of constitutional reform in the context of modern state formation. Students of the Zaporizhzhia National Technical University – representatives of the primary organization of the trade union of students, graduate students and doctoral students – were also invited to listen to proposals on the specified issue.
The moderator of the round table was Nikolayeva Tetyana Yevgeniivna – deputy head of the political science department of the Zaporizhzhia National University, candidate of philosophical sciences, associate professor. The experts were: Kolomoets T.O. – doctor of legal sciences, professor, dean of the Faculty of Law of ZNU; Maksakova R.M. – doctor of legal sciences, associate professor; Acting Head of the Department of Constitutional, Administrative and Labor Law of the Institute of Management and Law of ZNTU; Armash N.O. – doctor of legal sciences, associate professor, head of the department of constitutional, international and administrative law of KPU. Among the large number of students participating in the round table were 4th-year students of ZNTU: Halych I.V. and Kudlai A.Yu., who reported on the change in the status of higher institutions of state power and finding the balance of the three branches of power and ensuring distributive power.
The program of the round table included the discussion of the most pressing political, economic and social issues that may be affected by the constitutional reform. It should be noted that the Constitution of Ukraine has been changed, reformed and revised several times. Each time, the process of its improvement was fast and did not bring the desired result: the Basic Law of the State was adopted on June 28, 1996, then reforms took place in 2004, 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014. The participants of the round table emphasized that changes to sections 1, 3 and 13 of the Constitution are inappropriate for the current period of time. But reforming the Constitution is necessary and should be carried out in three directions: unity of state policy; ensuring constitutional guarantees of independence and professionalism of judges and fair justice and laying the constitutional foundations for reforming local self-government.
Among a large number of really interesting speeches, in my opinion, the most interesting was the speech of Daryna Stepanchenko – the head of the Zaporizhzhia branch of the League of Students of the Association of Lawyers of Ukraine – with a proposal to hold referendums online to attract as many people as possible. You can’t disagree with this – it’s really convenient, fast and simple. However, as experts noted, not all issues should be brought to the general public, but certainly the role and voice of society should be taken into account.
I note that about 800 proposals were submitted for consideration by experts. Oleksandr Zubchenko, the head of the internal policy department of the ZODA, emphasized that all proposals have already been considered and will be submitted to the constitutional commission of the VRU.
It is interesting that in this way, with an active discussion of today’s problems, it is possible to come to accurate conclusions and contribute to the development of our state.
To sum up everything written above, I would say that such measures are very important not only for the development of political education, but also for the improvement of modern reforms and adoption of laws in Ukraine.
To participate in similar events, follow the news on the website of the Regional Center for Patriotic Education of Youth (http://ocpvm.org.ua), and we will change our lives for the better!
Iryna Sazhynska,
Press service of the trade union committee of students of ZNTU
