Petro Poroshenko, who is in Strasbourg, shared key messages in the just-adopted European Parliament resolution. These include increasing aid for arms production, opening accession negotiations and supporting democracy in Ukraine.
“The European Parliament overwhelmingly approved the resolution on the European Commission’s 2023-2024 progress reports on Ukraine’s reforms in the context of enlargement. European partners stand shoulder to shoulder in our fight against the aggressor. Europe has already supported Ukraine with military assistance worth 50 billion euros and calls for providing Ukraine with more weapons and ammunition before any negotiations are concluded, for significantly increasing intelligence sharing with Ukraine; calls for lifting all restrictions on the use of Western weapons systems provided to Ukraine against military targets on Russian territory. The EU insists on Ukraine’s integration into defense initiatives and encourages the development of joint weapons production projects with EU and NATO partners,” the fifth President wrote on social media.
“I am grateful to all MEPs for supporting our country in the struggle for statehood, independence, sovereignty and the European choice, as well as in the implementation of democratic reforms. Special thanks to the rapporteur of the European Parliament, Michael Haller, for the initiative and thorough enormous work on the preparation of the Resolution, as well as to our political family of the European People’s Party for political leadership and support,” Poroshenko noted.
“On the issue of opening accession negotiations, the position of the European Parliament is clearly pro-Ukrainian and consists in the need to quickly open the “Fundamentals” negotiation cluster for Ukraine and Moldova,” the opposition leader said.
“The European Parliament has provided an honest, objective and friendly assessment of the state of affairs in Ukraine with regard to the effectiveness of democratic institutions, the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary. The resolution directly captures the “weak” points of our democracy and reforms, without progress in which membership negotiations cannot be accelerated. First: the rule of law and the judicial system. The EP is sounding the alarm over the paralysis of the Constitutional Court and the vulnerability of the judiciary to political influence. This is a matter of trust in the state. Second: the independence and effectiveness of the anti-corruption architecture. The resolution supports the NABU and the SAPO and demands their protection from any political influence, strengthening the ARMA, restarting the SBI and resolving the issue of selecting judges for the Supreme Judicial Council. This is a signal to Bankova: any attempts to “manually control” anti-corruption bodies are a direct blow to European integration,” states Petro Poroshenko.
“Third – democracy and parliamentary pluralism. The EP calls for refraining from politically motivated trials and sanctions against opposition representatives, as well as supporting parliamentary pluralism and promoting constructive dialogue between political factions in the Verkhovna Rada, lifting restrictions on international parliamentary diplomacy. Fourth: freedom of the media and civil society. The EP emphasizes the inadmissibility of monopolizing the airwaves and putting pressure on independent media,” Poroshenko noted.
“Today’s European Parliament Resolution and the intense debates on Ukraine have proven that support for our state in the European Parliament remains unwavering, but the speed of our movement towards membership depends not on loud and beautiful statements, but on real democratic decisions and actions in Ukraine. I thank the MEPs for taking into account our numerous proposals and improvements to the text of the Resolution. Our strength lies in unity and solidarity,” the fifth President is convinced.