Comparative-analytical study of normative-drafting activities in Ukraine and EU countries

The article is devoted to a comparative and analytical study of normative-drafting activities in Ukraine and the EU Member States in the context of the need to ensure harmonisation of national legislation with EU law (acquis communautaire). Given the European integration course of Ukraine and the active phase of the EU membership negotiations, the need to reform the national legislative process in accordance with the European lawmaking standards is of particular relevance. Therefore, the author systematically analyses the institutional mechanisms of normative-drafting, the stages of legislative preparation, and the level of interagency coordination, expert review procedures and the role of scientific support in legislative activities. Approaches to normative-drafting in Ukraine and a number of European countries, including France, Germany, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, are compared. The practices of functioning of advisory bodies (such as Conseil d’État in France, Bundesrat in Germany, and Kancelaria Senatu in Poland) and «better regulation» procedures are studied. The article pays special attention to the technical aspects of normative-drafting, in particular, the structure of the text, logical and semantic integrity, legal terminology, and design, as well as the availability of state standards of legal technique. It is established that in Ukraine, there are a number of systemic problems in the field of normative-drafting, in particular, the absence of a single legally enshrined standard of legal technique, the fragmentation of the regulatory framework for normative-drafting activities, the insufficient level of institutionalised expertise, and formal nature of public consultations. Based on the results of the study, the author formulates proposals for improving the normative-drafting activity in Ukraine, including with due regard for European models. In particular, the author substantiates the following: the need to adopt a single codified act defining the methodological principles of normative-drafting, legal technique and procedural regulations; the creation of permanent expert and analytical platforms; introduction of mandatory scientific support for draft regulatory legal acts; and development of a system for independent monitoring of legislative initiatives. In general, the article aims to bridge the identified institutional, procedural and substantive gaps between Ukrainian and European lawmaking practices.