President's bill on removing MP and judges immunity to be sent to Constitutional Court – MP Kononenko

The president's bill on amending the constitution, removing the immunity of MPs and judges, will be sent to the Constitutional Court by parliament during the next plenary week, first deputy head of the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko's faction Ihor Kononenko has said.

"It [the bill] will be worked on in the relevant committees, and I'm sure that by the next plenary week, starting on February 3, it will be sent to the Constitutional Court in accordance with procedure," the MP told reporters in Kyiv on Friday.

Kononenko noted that "today, we have put the bill on the agenda as an urgent one with, practically, the constitutional majority, and I say practically, because there were 297 votes, and [we] needed three more."

According to Verkhovna Rada procedure, MPs put a bill on amending the Constitution of Ukraine on the parliament session's agenda, and send it with a Verkhovna Rada address to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine for approval.

In case of the bill being put on the session's agenda, the parliament can create a temporary ad-hoc commission to continue working on the bill amending the Constitution.

The Verkhovna Rada can adopt the bill if it's compatible with the Constitution, according to the Constitutional Court's ruling, and if it was approved by the parliament of the same convocation beforehand at a previous or extraordinary session.

The bill on amending the Constitution of Ukraine, which is previously approved by the majority of the Rada, according to the Constitution, is considered adopted, if there are at least two thirds of Rada votes for it at the next regular session of the parliament.