In his speech at the panel “Sustainability and Economic Capacity. The Foundation for Victory”, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk first of all focused on the parliamentary diplomacy of wartime and the main achievements to date.
“Together with the President of Ukraine and the Government of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, as the only legislative body, has been able to significantly unite the international parliamentary community, which is now actively working and helping Ukraine,” the Speaker of the Parliament of Ukraine said.
He noted that the voices of parliaments have been and are crucial for governments that make decisions in support of Ukraine, including condemnation of the aggression of the russian federation, recognition of russia as a terrorist state, imposition of sanctions (sectoral sanctions), blocking and confiscation of russian assets.
At the same time, Ruslan Stefanchuk stressed that, in addition to working with parliaments, activities with parliamentary assemblies are actively organised: “The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation have all decided that russia should no longer be a member of these organisations.” He said that this “parliamentary isolation” is very important, it is very important to keep the issue of Ukraine on the agenda”.
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine also highlighted the facilitation of securing and maintaining the flow of material assistance, primarily military and financial. “In the vast majority of countries, such decisions are approved by parliaments – and our cooperation with other countries shows that, despite the political processes that exist in many parliaments, the issue of supporting Ukraine is the only systemic component, there is no other opinion than that Ukraine should be supported.”
According to Ruslan Stefanchuk, the Parliament of Ukraine also played a key role in Ukraine's integration into the European Union, including obtaining the status of a candidate for accession to the EU and starting membership negotiations. “The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has adopted and supported all the necessary legislative acts that were set for us as a requirement for our potential membership in the European Union,” he stressed, adding that these acts were adopted both at the stage of obtaining candidate status and at the stage of opening negotiations. In particular, a new level of cooperation with the European Parliament was also activated, as approved in the Memorandum of Cooperation signed last year by the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk and the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola.
In addition, during the two years of the full-scale invasion, the number of parliaments that recognised the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as genocide of the Ukrainian people more than doubled. “This is a very big progress for further claiming this most terrible disaster that happened to the Ukrainian nation for recognition at the global level,” said Ruslan Stefanchuk.
“In 2024, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine will work equally actively with all parliaments of the EU and NATO member states. And the direction that we will actively develop is work with the parliaments of neighbouring countries, except for the aggressor countries,” the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine said, adding that the issue of a successful NATO Washington Summit for Ukraine is one of the priority issues.