President Victor Yushchenko on Wednesday met with members of the European Parliament, led by Romania’s Adrian Severin, chairman of the Delegation to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, President's press office informed.
They discussed recent developments in Ukraine. Yushchenko said the country’s political crisis, which he called a “test for Ukrainian democracy,” showed that the Constitutional Court was as "biased" as other courts in Ukraine. He described the existing model to form the Central Election Commission as “ineffective” and the Verkhovna Rada “incapable of resolving its problems.”
“I am convinced the key problem roots in Ukraine’s parliament, because this is the institution where political corruption thrives,” he complained.
The president said he “will continue to take part in political talks as long as Ukraine’s political forces cannot make compromises without his assistance.” “However, I really want this dialogue to be mostly held in the parliament building,” he said. “The most important thing now is to fulfill all the agreements [reached on Sunday] and resolve the situation through early parliamentary elections.”
Yushchenko thanked the European lawmakers for their attention. “We really appreciate that the European Parliament is following the settlement of the political crisis in Ukraine. It is really important for us to know that Europe knows and appreciates our problems.”
The Ukrainian leader welcomed last week’s EU Presidency Statement on Developments in Ukraine as well as statements by Javier Solana, Secretary General of the Council of the European Union and High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, and EU Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner.
Yushchenko and the EP delegation also spoke about economic and European issues, particularly how to develop Ukraine’s ties with the European Parliament. Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Volodymyr Khandogiy, Deputy Secretariat Chief of Staff Oleksandr Chalyy and MP Volodymyr Vecherko, head of the Verkhovna Rada sub-committee for parliamentary cooperation, attended the meeting.
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