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First Yatsenyuk government

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Yatsenyuk Government

16th Cabinet of Ukraine (since 1990)
Date formed27 February 2014
People and organisations
Head of stateOleksandr Turchynov (speaker of parliament)
Head of governmentArseniy Yatsenyuk
Deputy head of governmentVitaliy Yarema
No. of ministers20
Member partyBatkivshchyna
UDAR
Svoboda
Status in legislatureCoalition "European Choice"
Opposition cabinetno official cabinet
Opposition partyCommunist Party of Ukraine
Opposition leaderPetro Symonenko
History
Legislature term5 years
PredecessorSecond Azarov Government
Successorincumbent

A government headed by Arseniy Yatsenyuk was created in Ukraine in the aftermath of the Ukrainian revolution. The international community has recognized the government, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Prime Minister of Latvia Laimdota Straujuma, and Prime Minister of Lithuania Algirdas Butkevičius who on 27 February 2014 congratulated Yatsenyuk on his appointment as interim Prime Minister.[1][2][3] The recognition would extend further with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden telling that same day to Yatsenyuk that his interim government had the full support of the United States.[4][5][6][7]

A few days later, the United States Secretary of State John Kerry visited the Ukrainian capital of Kiev on 4 March 2014 and met with Yatsenyuk, followed by members of the European Union that met with members of his government prior to the EU summit of 6 March 2014.[8][9][10][11]

Russia, however, denounced the events that led to the previous government's ouster as an illegitimate coup with both the Crimean parliament and the government of Russia considering the Yatsenyuk Government as illegitimate.[a][b][c][d] This disagreement is one of the factors contributing to the ongoing Crimean crisis taking place on the Crimean peninsula in the southeastern region of Ukraine which is predominantly pro-Russian.[a]


Background

The Yatsenyuk government followed the anti-government Euromaidan protests that began in 2013, and culminated in the 21 February 2014 impeachment of President Viktor Yanukovych in the 2014 Ukrainian revolution.[16] The government was first presented at Kiev's main Euromaidan protest camp at Maidan Nezalezhnosti on 26 February 2014.[17] The government was voted on by Verkhovna Rada on 27 February 2014.[18][19] There were no government posts for the UDAR party led by one of the Euromaidan leaders, Vitali Klitschko.[20][21] UDAR declined offers to participate in the new government.[22]

On its first day 250 MPs signed up to join the coalition, including the Batkivshchyna, UDAR, Svoboda factions, the Economic Development and Sovereign European Ukraine groups and other MPs.[23]

The Yatsenyuk Government has stated it does not have the intention of making Ukraine a member of NATO.[24]

Parliamentary voting

For the candidacy of Arseniy Yatsenyuk as the Prime Minister of Ukraine voted 371 members of parliament, couple of votes short from the record high of 373 when Yulia Tymoshenko was elected back in 2005.[25]

Faction Number of members Yes No Abstained Did not vote Absent
Party of Regions 123 94 1 0 8 20
Batkivshchyna – United Opposition 88 85 0 0 0 3
UDAR 42 40 0 0 0 2
Svoboda 36 36 0 0 0 0
Communist Party of Ukraine 32 0 0 0 32 0
Not affiliated 59 51 0 2 2 4
Sovereign European Ukraine (group) 37 34 0 0 1 2
Economic Development (group) 32 31 0 0 0 1
All factions 450 371 1 2 43 33

Additional decisions

Proposals Yes No Abstained Did not vote Total
The composition of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine[26] 331 1 2 43 417
Appointment of Deshchytsia the acting Foreign Minister[27] 322 0 0 86 408
Appointment of Tenyukh the acting Defense Minister[28] 326 0 0 82 408

Changes to composition

On March 1, 2014 Ministry of Revenues and Duties was liquidated.[29]

Constitutional authorization

The constitutional authorization was questioned by Ashley Deeks an associate professor of law at the Columbia Law School, earlier she served for ten years in the Legal Adviser's Office at the State Department, most recently as the Assistant Legal Adviser for Political-Military Affairs.[30]

  • "The President can only be impeached from office by parliament through “no less than three-quarters of its constitutional composition.”[...]However for an effective impeachment under constitutional rules the 449-seated parliament would have needed 337 votes to remove Yanukovych from office. Thus under the current constitution, Yanukovych is still the incumbent and legitimate President of the Ukraine"
  • "This constitutional oversight puts the interim government in legal limbo as the bills that are currently being signed into law by acting President Turchynov are not carrying any constitutional authorization."

Composition

Template:Yatsenyuk Government

International response

Notes

  1. ^ a b Gumuchian; Morgan; Chance (2014) "Moscow has denounced the events that led to Yanukovych's ouster as an illegitimate coup and has refused to recognize the new Ukrainian authorities, putting the two countries on a collision course over control of Crimea, which has longstanding ties to Russia and has thousands of Russian troops stationed there."[12]
  2. ^ Dawber (2014) "Vladimir Putin has given a confident performance in front of the media, insisting that the events of the last 10 days in Ukraine amounted to nothing less than a coup d’état."[13]
  3. ^ The Washington Post (2014) "[Putin says:] Are the current authorities legitimate? The Parliament is partially, but all the others are not. The current Acting President is definitely not legitimate. There is only one legitimate President, from a legal standpoint. Clearly, he has no power. However, as I have already said, and will repeat: Yanukovych is the only undoubtedly legitimate President."[14]
  4. ^ BBC News (2014) "But Crimea's First Deputy PM Rustam Temirgaliev dismissed the suggestion, saying Crimea views the new authorities in Kiev as illegitimate."[15]

References

  1. ^ Stabilising Ukraine's economy, Official website of the Cabinet of Germany (28 February 2014)
  2. ^ PM Straujuma offers her congratulations to new government in Ukraine, LETA (27 February 2014)
  3. ^ PM Butkevičius congratulates Ukraine’s new Prime Minister, Lithuania Tribune (27 February 2014)
  4. ^ New Ukraine Government Has White House's Support, U.S. Vice President Says, The Moscow Times (28 February 2014)
  5. ^ Joe Biden calls new Ukraine leader, pledges support, Politico (27 February 2014)
  6. ^ Biden: U.S. Supports Ukraine's New Government, Voice of America (27 February 2014)
  7. ^ Vice President Biden calls Ukraine PM Yatseniuk, pledges U.S. support, Reuters (27 February 2014)
  8. ^ Ukrainian Prime Minister to Visit Washington D.C., Time (magazine) (March 9, 2014)
  9. ^ EU summit rolls out red carpet for Ukraine's Yatsenyuk, EurActiv (March 6, 2014)
  10. ^ John Kerry arrives to show support for fledgling Ukraine government as Obama announces $1billion aid package, Daily Mail (5 March 2014)
  11. ^ US imposes visa restrictions on Russian officials as Obama signs sanctions order, theguardian.com (6 March 2014)
  12. ^ Gumuchian, Marie-Louise; Morgan, Kellie; Chance, Matthew (10 March 2014). "Demonstrators rally as Crimea crisis mounts". CNN. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  13. ^ Dawber, Alistair (5 March 2014). "Ukraine crisis: How do you solve a problem like Crimea?". The Independent. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  14. ^ "Transcript: Putin defends Russian intervention in Ukraine". The Washington Post. 8 March 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  15. ^ "Ukraine crisis: Crimea parliament asks to join Russia". BBC News. 6 March 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  16. ^ Ukraine: Speaker Oleksandr Turchynov named interim president, BBC News (23 February 2014)
    Ukraine protests timeline, BBC News (23 February 2014)
  17. ^ Ukraine crisis: Yatsenyuk is PM-designate, Kiev Maidan told, BBC News (26 February 2014)
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference IU26214GNU was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ Рада назначила новый Кабмин
  20. ^ Protest Leaders Pick Activists for 'Government of Unity', The Wall Street Journal (26 February 2014)
  21. ^ Profile: Ukraine's key protest figures, BBC News (27 January 2014)
  22. ^ Who exactly is governing Ukraine?, theguardian.com (4 March 2014)
  23. ^ 250 MPs sign up to join coalition - Turchynov, Interfax-Ukraine (27 February 2014)
  24. ^ Deschytsia states new government of Ukraine has no intention to join NATO, Interfax-Ukraine (29 March 2014)
  25. ^ Individual voting. Verkhovna Rada. February 27, 2014
  26. ^ Individual voting. Verkhovna Rada. February 27, 2014
  27. ^ Individual voting. Verkhovna Rada. February 27, 2014
  28. ^ Individual voting. Verkhovna Rada. February 27, 2014
  29. ^ About liquidation of the Ministry of Revenues and Duties. Government portal. March 1, 2014
  30. ^ http://www.lawfareblog.com/2014/03/russia-in-ukraine-a-reader-responds/
  31. ^ "The Russian Foreign Ministry found nationalist extremists in the new Ukrainian government" (in Russian). Interfax. 2014-02-27. Archived from the original on 2014-02-28. Retrieved 2014-03-05.
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