Signing an agreement with Ukraine

  • 2014-03-10
  • from MEP Hannu Takkula

Strasbourg, Feb. 2014 - THE SIGNING OF AN AGREEMENT WITH UKRAINE SHOULD BE CONDITIONAL, AND IT SHOULD DEPEND ON UKRAINE RESTRAINING ITS EXTREME NATIONALISTIC MOVEMENTS, says a member of the European Parliament from Finland.

Hannu Takkula, MEP from Finland, who has signed the EU resolution on Ukraine, has issued a statement in which he expresses his position and line on the future of Ukraine.

MEP Hannu Takkula says: one of the shadows clouding the future of Ukraine is a strong position enjoyed there by the extreme nationalistic movements. Officials in Ukraine have to intervene into cases of anti-Semitic speeches, graffiti, and attacks on synagogues. The EU also shall keep this as a condition for our signing the future Association and Trade Agreement with Ukraine. The Ukrainian long-term goal of joining the EU could be discussed only after the country’s minorities will have complete protection there, guaranteed by law.

“Sometimes, the EU is compared with a cash-machine, but the people at Maidan square in Kiev did not wave the EU flags there because of their hopes for EU money. For them, the EU represents, first of all, a chance for building a better society, a government ruled by law, and maintenance of general human rights,” stated Takkula, member of the European parliament from Finland.

MEP Takkula also sees in the current situation in Ukraine a historical possibility to progress towards European Union core values: human dignity, democracy, freedom of speech and respect of law. Takkula was the one of the members of the European Parliament who voted for the EP resolution on the situation in Ukraine. In this resolution it is aimed that the EU Association and Trade Agreement with Ukraine could be signed soon after the current acute political crisis in the country is resolved.

“It is underlined in the main part of the resolution that the EU is ready to support the democratization process in Ukraine. It is also stated there that economic aid could be connected with this. But it is important to emphasize that this possibility is conditional: Ukraine shall take the responsibility for renewing the system in its country, first of all, by eradication of corruption from the processes for fundamental changes,” states MEP Takkula.