PACE president wants to help dialogue between Ukrainian authorities and opposition
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) should help Ukraine emerge from crisis without interfering in the country's affairs, new PACE President Anne Brasseur has said.
"We should help the Ukrainians emerge from crisis, without going into the details of their domestic policy and the path which they want to walk. We cannot violate Ukraine's sovereignty," she said in an interview with the Russian service of the Voice of America.
An urgent debate on the situation in Ukraine will be held as part of the PACE's winter session in Strasbourg on Thursday.
"Dialogue is the only way to move forward. If the assembly can help in the beginning of this dialogue, we will be happy to bring representatives of the authorities and the opposition together in this conversation," Brasseur said.
"Our colleagues in the Ukrainian parliament have changed a lot in the laws they adopted. I do not know whether this will be enough for a dialogue, but this conversation really has to be held, and both sides should participate in it, because two are needed for a conversation," she said.
She declined to predict how the situation in Ukraine would be discussed during the debate at the session.
"But we must clearly state one thing: violence from both sides does not solve the problem. Force should not be used to quell the protests, but the protesters should not use it either," she said.
She said that "most protesters do not resort to violence, but they are discredited by those who commit such acts – these can be both hooligans and those who pursue very different goals than those of protesters."
