PACE not to consider Ukrainian issue at its next session, says ambassador to Council of Europe

Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the Council of Europe Mykola Tochytsky has said that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has no plans to consider the situation in Ukraine at its next session in January 2013.

"As of today, I do not have such information that the PACE will consider the situation in Ukraine at its next session. PACE doesn't have such plans," the ambassador said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

He explained that there is such a thing as urgent debate, but at the moment, there are other more important issues for the organization - Syria, the situation in the Middle East.

"As for the parliamentary elections in Ukraine, the final report by the PACE on their results is still being prepared. It is scheduled to be considered and adopted in PACE later this month. According to my information, spokesmen haven't raised the issue of mandatory consideration of this matter at the next session of the assembly. This means there is no reason to believe that this issue will be considered at the January session of the PACE," Tochytsky said.

When asked about the assessment of the parliamentary elections, which are voiced in the PACE, the ambassador said that there were no final findings. "Those statements that were made to the press immediately after the election are not the final assessment of the elections by the assembly. I would call them personal opinions of individual members or heads of observer missions," the diplomat said.

According to him, the final document will be considered on November 29-30. "Of course, there are critical moments and comments from the observer mission of the Council of Europe, which focus primarily on the electoral law. And the Venice Commission warned us ahead of the election that the new election law is intricate for holding the trouble-free elections. However, these elections did take place and the Ukrainian government made itself clear noting that all the constructive comments of observers will be taken into consideration," Tochytsky said.