On 19 September 2025, the Research Service of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, in cooperation with the INTER PARES Programme and the European Parliament, held an educational webinar on “Key Aspects of the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament”.

The event was opened by Serhii Kalchenko, Member of the Parliament of Ukraine, Chairman of the Committee on Rules of Procedure, Deputy Ethics and Organisation of Work of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and Lucienne Attard, Head of Unit for Legislative Planning and External Policies, Directorate for Legislative Acts of the European Parliament. In their welcoming remarks, they emphasized the importance of learning from the practices of the European Parliament to improve parliamentary procedures in Ukraine, highlighted the role of rules in ensuring transparency and accountability in the legislative process, and underlined the value of educational initiatives in strengthening parliamentary expertise and fostering closer inter-parliamentary cooperation.

The keynote lecture was delivered by Laurence Van Wymeersch, Advisor to the Director, Directorate for Legislative Acts (DLA) of the European Parliament.

The presentation covered the following key topics:

·     the legal basis of the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament (Article 232 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union), their structure and main chapters;

·      the role of the European Parliament’s principal bodies – the Bureau, the Conference of Presidents, standing committees, and political groups;

·      the Parliament’s legislative, budgetary, and oversight powers;

·    procedures for submitting and considering amendments, and the rules governing plenary sessions and voting;

·      urgent procedures and mechanisms for upholding the Code of Conduct for Members of the European Parliament;

·     parliamentary oversight tools regarding the activities of the European Commission;

·      the possibility of adapting procedures in extraordinary circumstances, including crises.

In their concluding remarks, Lesia Vaolevska, Head of the Research Service of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and Ingrid Walker, Programme Manager of INTER PARES, stressed the significance of such educational initiatives for building the institutional capacity of parliaments and advancing their effective integration into the European parliamentary space.

Simultaneous interpretation into English and Ukrainian, provided by the INTER PARES Programme, ensured the webinar was accessible to a broad audience.