The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has hosted a meeting of the Ukraine-Italy friendship group with the participation of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Italian Republic to Ukraine Davide La Cecilia, First Secretary of the Italian Embassy Luca Trabalza and Administrative Assistant of the Embassy Iryna Pivnenko.
Co-Chair of the Friendship Group, Serhii Alekseyev, said that the meeting is very important as during the tenure of previous Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Fabrizio Romano the friendship group managed to organize constructive and fruitful work. Thus, he said such a format should be prolonged.
Alekseyev expressed gratitude to the Embassy of Italy in Ukraine for its support. He noted results and cooperation in political, economic and cultural sectors.
In turn Davide La Cecilia said Italy supports the sanctions against violation of the international law by Russia and added that his country perceives the sanctions as a method to exert pressure on the guilty country. The Ambassador said that the Embassy of Italy will assist in development of economic relations between the two countries and offered to hold a joint business-forum with the participation of Italian and Ukrainian businessmen.
At the same time Serhii Alekseyev suggested invitation of Italia's opposition representatives to Ukraine to have an opportunity to explain them Ukraine's position on Crimea and events taking place in the east of our state.
The parties also discussed cooperation in the sector of medicine. According to co-chair of the friendship group, Oksana Korchynska, to improve such cooperation, the health ministries of the two countries have to sign a memorandum that would envision payments for treatment of Ukrainian patients in Italy at the expense of the public budget after hospitalization instead of doing it before such treatment (as it is now).
She added that EUR 17 million is currently envisioned for 2017 to finance treatment of seriously ill patients.
According to Oksana Korchynska, this year Italian producers of prostheses made 11 prosthetic repairs at the expense of the state budget for Ukrainian citizens, five such operations were conducted at the expense of charity fees. Besides, 24 Ukrainian children had bone marrow transplant operations, while one surgery of that sort cost EUR 120,000-150,000.
Korchynska also noted the importance of holding awareness-building campaign among Italy citizens as to the events in the east of Ukraine.
Friendship group member Oleh Kupriyenko called on representatives of the Italian business working in Ukraine to inform the group members in case they face any risks of corruption.
Other active participants in the meeting were members of the Ukrainian Parliament Andrii Shynkovych and Viktor Romaniuk. A total of 17 Ukrainian MPs were present at the meeting.
During the meeting, Hanna Stepanenko was elected another secretary of the Ukraine-Italy interparliamentary friendship group.