Ukraine Will Return to PACE After All

16 January 2020 20:32

The Ukrainian parliament has voted to return to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

The Ukrainian parliament has voted to return to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). 348 MPs voted in favor of this.

There was no discussion during the voting process.

According to the explanatory note that accompanies the decree, the aim of this return is to "avoid the retainment of the current situation in Europe, which arose due to aggressive foreign politics [practiced by] the Russian Federation."

The document also highlights that Ukraine's participation in PACE's 2020 sessions is "crucial for Ukraine's full implementation of its duties as the full-fledged member of the Council of Europe."

On June 25, the Ukrainian delegation to PACE made a decision to terminate its participation in the assembly's sessions. This came a day after the historic June 24 vote that reinstated Russia's voting rights within the organization.

Russia’s voting rights were suspended after their illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in April 2014. The organization condemned the annexation as a “clear contradiction of the Statute of the Council of Europe” but did not suspend the Russian delegation entirely in an effort to maintain dialogue.