Popesku: Call by PACE co-rapporteurs to parliament 'a very strong message' to Ukrainian parties

The chairman of the Ukrainian delegation to PACE, Party of Regions MP Ivan Popesku, has said he sees as "a very strong message" the call made by PACE co-rapporteurs Mailis Reps and Marietta de Pourbaix-Lundin to the Verkhovna Rada for the adoption of constitutional amendments aimed at strengthening the independence of the judicial system in Ukraine.

"This is a very strong message for all political forces in the Ukrainian parliament, so that we all together - representatives of the government and the opposition – can adopt constitutional amendments aimed at strengthening the independence of the judiciary. They previously drew our attention to the need to implement this, but the political situation in previous years made it impossible to collect the necessary number of votes for the introduction of respective amendments to the constitution. And now, before the summit in Vilnius, we are able to introduce respective amendments together and properly prepare for the signing of the Association Agreement with the EU," the press service of the Party of Regions quoted him as saying on Wednesday.

"I believe that two important events for us have already taken placed at the current session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE holds its autumn session from September 30 to October 4 in Strasbourg). The first is that the rapporteurs of the PACE Monitoring Committee on Ukraine strongly support the signing of the Association Agreement and drew attention to the need to amend the constitution to strengthen the independence of the judiciary, and the second event is yesterday's declaration, signed by a group of PACE deputies, in which they welcomed the efforts of the Ukrainian authorities to conduct reforms and create conditions for signing the Association Agreement with the EU," Popesku said.