Strong support for Ukraine at first Parliamentary Association Committee meeting

Under the co-chairmanship of Andrej Plenković MEP on behalf of the European Parliament and Ostap Semerak on behalf of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the first meeting of the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee (PAC) was held in Brussels on 24-25 February 2015.

The Committee discussed the state of play in EU-Ukraine relations and the overall security and political situation in Ukraine and agreed on recommendations to the Council.

Commemorating the Ukrainian people who have had the courage and determination to continue on their European path, the PAC strongly condemned that Ukraine has been subject to Russia's aggressive and expansionist policy and undeclared hybrid war, which constitutes a threat to the unity, integrity and independence of Ukraine. The Committee regrets that almost one year has passed since the illegal annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in violation of international law.

The PAC strongly condemned the increasing amount of terrorist acts in Ukrainian cities, including the recent act in Kharkiv on 22 February and other recent acts of violence which preceded the Minsk Agreement and resulted in great human suffering and the death of numerous civilians.

Andrej Plenković welcomed the various diplomatic peace efforts that are based on Ukraine's territorial integrity and strongly supports the agreement that was reached in Minsk on 12 February 2015 under the facilitation of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande and the ‘Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreement’.

The Committee underlined the need to provide further means, personnel and equipment, to the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. The PAC took note of Ukraine's proposal to launch an EU CSDP mission which is being considered at diplomatic level as one of the possible international mechanisms with the aim of peacefully reintegrating temporarily-occupied territories into the constitutional and legal order of Ukraine.

The PAC stressed that the European Parliament has supported further financial assistance to Ukraine and welcomed the proposal by the European Commission to grant a third package of macro-financial assistance (€1.8 billion) to help the new reform-oriented Ukrainian Government financially and economically.

The Committee decided to launch the parliamentary support/capacity-building activities of the EP to the Verkhovna Rada and Chairman Plenković was appointed as the lead MEP for this programme which will facilitate the management of European Affairs in the Ukrainian Parliament.

The next meeting of the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee is planned for early autumn 2015 in Ukraine.