September 12, 2024
On September 12, 2024, at the public part of the plenary session, the Grand Chamber commenced deliberation in the form of written proceedings upon the constitutional petition of 56 People's Deputies of Ukraine.
During the plenary session, the judge-rapporteur in the case, Galyna Yurovska, reported that People's Deputies had filed a petition with the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to verify the compliance of Article 20.20 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Status of People's Deputies of Ukraine” No. 2790-XII (hereinafter, “Law No. 2790”), dated November 17, 1992, as amended and paragraphs 14.3 and 14.4 of Section I of the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Increasing Pensions” No. 2148-VIII (hereinafter, “Law No. 2148”) dated October 3, 2017 .
According to paragraphs 14.3 and 14.4 of Law No. 2148, Article 20.20 of Law No. 2790 is set out in the following wording: “Pension provision for People's Deputies is carried out in accordance with the Law of Ukraine “On Compulsory State Pension Insurance”.
The authors of the petition argue that the disputed provisions of the laws do not properly guarantee the labour rights of People's Deputies of Ukraine in terms of pensions and do not comply with the provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine “in terms of extending their effect to People's Deputies of Ukraine of the I-VII convocations, People's Deputies of Ukraine of the VIII convocation, whose powers began before October 1, 2017, as well as persons who were entitled to pensions of People's Deputies of Ukraine of the I-VII convocations and People's Deputies of Ukraine of the VIII convocation, whose powers began before October 1, 2017.
In their position, Law No. 2148, contrary to its intended purpose, as its name implies, has reduced the pension benefits of People's Deputies of Ukraine and worsened the conditions of social protection for disabled members of their families who receive a survivor's pension.
In support of their position, the authors of the petition refer, in particular, to the provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine, legal positions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 1950, the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, and the laws of Ukraine.
Reasoning for the assertion of the unconstitutionality of the contested provisions of the laws, the subject of the right to constitutional petition points out, in particular, the special legal status of the People's Deputies of Ukraine, violation of the legitimate expectations of the relevant categories of persons, non-guaranteed labour rights of the People's Deputies of Ukraine in terms of their pension provision, as well as violation of social justice in the calculation of pensions for the People's Deputies of the relevant previous convocations.
The judge-rapporteur also informed that in order to fully and objectively deliberate the case, letters of inquiry had been sent to the President of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine and a number of higher education institutions regarding the issues raised in the constitutional petition.
The Court examined the case file at the public part of the plenary session and proceeded to the in-camera part for further deliberations on issues related to the constitutional proceedings in this case.
The plenary session was attended by the Permanent Representative of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Maksym Dyrdin, the Representative of the President of Ukraine to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Serhiy Dembovsky and other citizens of Ukraine.
The video recording of the plenary session is available on the official website of the Court of Ukraine in the section “Archive of video broadcasts of sessions”.
