DemAlliance board member Liliya Romanyuk returned from four months internship in German Parliament, which became possible thanks to Hans Seidel Foundation. Liliya kindly agreed to share her impressions from the period of time which she spent in Bundestag with DemAlliance press-service.

P-S: Liliya, how can you describe your stay in Berlin in general?

L.: It was very informative, full of impressions and events, new knowledge and just overall information period of time. Combination of rather tense working time with tourist’s status. Finish your work in the office of the MP, go out of the building and you are on the central street of Berlin – Unter den Linden, pass under Brandenburger tor, then Reichstag…watching hundreds of tourists with cameras, and saying smiling to myself “..and I work here!”

P-S: How did you find out and get to the internship?

L.: I would like to thank representative office of Hans Seidel Foundation in Kyiv for all these. Exactly they informed me about the possibility of internship, about the procedure of receiving the scholarship, helped me with visa and other issues. It’s very important for the members of Democratic Alliance to go on internships to legislative bodies in countries of Western Europe. Most of the Board members went on internships to European Parliament. Democratic Alliance cooperates with German foundations and very often we heard from them example of German democracy functioning. German Christian Democrats are an example for us and besides my main foreign language is German, that is why I got really interested in German Parliament. I’m very glad that thanks to Hans Seidel Foundation we discovered the internship in Bundestag for us.

P-S.: Which Member of the Parliament did you assist?

L.: I worked in the office of Eckhard Pols. He was elected as CDU member from Lüchow-Dannenberg - Lüneburg Electoral district. I think I was really lucky to work exactly in his office, because he is a very clever and at the same time easy to communicate with person and also because issues which he work at are very interesting and popular in society. For example, in the town of Gorleben, which is situated in electoral district of Mr Pols, the research on building the store of nuclear waste in salt mines is being done. The discussions on this issue are very sharp not only in the Parliament but also in society. Having internship exactly in Mr Pols’ office I was in the centre of information about nuclear energy in Germany, measures on protecting the environment, development of renewing energy etc

P-S: Could you please describe your typical working day?

L.: It depended on type of MP’s working week. The working month in the Parliament is divided into weeks of meetings (in working-groups, commissions, committees) and weeks when MPs work in their electoral districts. As a rule 2 weeks MPs are in Berlin and 2 weeks in their district. So, during the week of meetings I accompanied Mr Pols to almost all the meetings in which he took part. For example, Mr Pols is a member of committee for Family, elderly people, women and youth issues. Every Tuesday of meetings week, MPs from CDU|CSU factions who are the members of that committee have a meeting of their working group. During this working group they discuss and confirm their position on the issues which are going to be discussed the next day at the committee meeting, they prepare argumentation, solve main problems, very often invite experts , representatives of public organizations, government bodies. After lunch on Tuesday there is the working group of Mr Pols, who is also the head of subcommittee on issues of children defense, with secretariat of subcommittee. At such meetings mostly organizational issues are being solved. On Wednesday all factions of the Parliament take part in committee meetings and stand for their positions.  On Thursday committee of inquiry, the member of which is also Mr Pols, has plenary meetings.  Friday is a day of plenary hearings. So during the meetings week I also participated in them. When the MP works in the district I work in the office. The main task was analysis and systematization of all the information and also position of CDU/CSU on particular problematic political issues, which are actively discussed in society. Thus I analyzed such issues as stay of German military troops in Afghanistan, agricultural policy, law on hastening economical rise, introduction of additional tax on bank operations, children adoption, Au-pair- in Germany and others.

P-S: Did you participate in plenary meetings?

L: Yes, sure I did. It was very interesting. Professional debates on every important issue.

A lot of things happened during these four months I don’t even know how to describe them briefly.

For example, there were Presidential elections. When our chief participated in elections we were watching the meeting of Federal Convention live in our office. During world football championship we also gathered in office and watched matches, painted with colors of German flag, wearing t-shirts, scarves.

P-S: And what do German Members of Parliament know about their Ukrainian colleagues?

L: For today Ukrainian-German inter-parliamentarian commission exists which includes members of both Parliaments. MPs who are members of this commission know everything. Considering the others I can only remember the meeting of Mr Pols with pupils, and when he was answering to the question how MPs solve some issues if their parties have opposite views, Mr Pols began with words: “Surely we don’t fight as they do in Ukrainian Parliament…” It is a shame.