Ukraine's parliament in February sent a presidential bill to abolish the parliamentary immunity and to limit immunity of judges to the examination by the Constitutional Court and the Venice Commission.
Parliamentary and judicial immunity are provisioned in the constitution of Ukraine, but an agreement signed by five parliamentary majority parties in late 2014 stipulates lifting immunity for parliament members.
After a positive verdict by the Constitutional Court on a constitutional amendment, a bill may be passed by the parliament in the first reading with 226 votes. But the next parliamentary session will require at least 300 votes to adopt the law.
In April, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk called on the country's parliament to annul the immunity currently in place for Ukrainian lawmakers and judges as soon as the Constitutional Court deemed the change did not violate the country's constitution.
