The Verkhovna Rada [Ukrainian Parliament] has approved the draft bill on media, which the European Commission has defined as one of criteria for evaluating Ukraine’s movement to the European Union. 

Yaroslav Zhelezniak, member of the Parliament, has reported this on his Telegram channel.

According to him, 299 MPs voted for this draft bill. 

Here is how members of the parliament have voted: Sluha Narodu (Servant of the People) faction - 195 votes; Yevropeiska Solidarnist (European Solidarity) - 18 votes; Batkivshchyna (Motherland) - 9 votes; Platforma za Zhyttia ta Myr (Platform for Life and Peace) - 15; Za Maibutnie (For the Future) - 11; Holos (Voice) - 14; Dovira (Trust) - 15; Vidnovlennia Ukrainy (Restoration of Ukraine) - 12; non-aligned members of the parliament - 10 votes. 

Zhelezniak has also clarified that the Parliament accepted compromise positions. This actually refers to the status of Rada TV channel. According to the decision, this channel has to provide the broadcasting of the Parliament’s sessions; moreover, during martial law and limitations of live broadcasts, the channel has to publish recordings on the day of a plenary meeting.  

Some norms regarding electoral legislation have been removed from the draft bill. 

On 7 December, the Verkhovna Rada Committee for Humanitarian and Information Policy completed the consideration of 2,500 amendments to the draft bill and recommended that the MPs approve it in the second reading. 

A new draft bill gives more powers to the National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine; this has been exactly why the opposition criticised it. 

In November, Taras Shevchenko, Deputy Minister of Culture and Information Policy, reported that Ukraine had received findings of the European Commission regarding the draft bill on media. Those findings were very operational and not too big, he said.

On 30 August, the Verkhovna Rada approved the new law on media in its first reading after it received a positive evaluation from the European Union. 

The opposition criticised the document because it supposedly ruined the mechanisms of protecting Ukrainian language and national cultural and information space established by the current legislation.  

Ukraine has to perform seven steps in order to start negotiations regarding joining the EU; those seven steps are the criteria defined by the European Commission. At the moment, the criterion for the media sector is estimated as 6 out of 10.