Fruitful work of Ukrainian and French parliamentarians can give a significant impetus to deepening of bilateral cooperation. This was stressed by the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Volodymyr Rybak during the meeting with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the French Republic to Ukraine Alain Remy on Wednesday.
According to him, the important events in domestic policy of our states took place last year – presidential and parliamentary elections in France, and parliamentary elections in Ukraine. “Therefore, the leadership of our countries, focused mainly on the processes in domestic policy,” Volodymyr Rybak said. “I hope that political dialogue between Ukraine and France will be continued in current year.”
In this context, the Chairman of the Parliament noted that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine intends to visit France in the nearest future, during the visit the road map of Ukrainian-French relations for 2013-2015 to be signed.
Volodymyr Rybak stressed that inter-parliamentary cooperation is an important part of Ukrainian-French relations. According to him, despite a certain pause in bilateral visits of leaders of both parliaments, the cooperation at the level of parliamentary committees, international parliamentary assemblies and friendship groups continued.
Volodymyr Rybak hopes to deepen cooperation between parliaments after the formation of new membership of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine friendship group in relations with the French Republic. He informed also that the people’s deputies of Ukraine submitted 84 applications for membership in this group.
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada deems that fruitful work of both countries can give a significant impetus to deepening of bilateral Ukrainian-French cooperation, in particular, in the interregional dimension.
He noted the constructive approach of French parliamentarians regarding the issues of multilateral cooperation. "A good example of this would be, in particular, a high level of mutual understanding between the delegations of Ukraine and France in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. I would like this positive dynamic to be preserved and intensified in the future,” Volodymyr Rybak said.
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada noted also that Ukraine is interested in continuing active work on search of ways to further activation of our trade-economic cooperation, as its appropriate potential is not exhausted.
In his turn, Ambassador called also for more active "practice of parliamentary diplomacy", expansion of parliamentary cooperation, particularly at the level of friendship groups, relevant committees and management of higher legislative bodies of our states.
Alain Remy assured readiness of French parliamentarians to exchange experiences with Ukrainian colleagues in the field of legislative activity.