27 January 2016, 15:52
"Ukraine and Latvia are united by their history, their present and I am confident — we have joint European future," Oleksandr Kodola said commenting on the yesterday's meeting of the deputy group for interparliamentary relations between Ukraine and the Republic of Latvia and parliamentarians of the Latvian Saeima.
The people's deputy noted that Latvia is a country that has supported Ukraine in its democratic reformation for a long period of time.
At the same time, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Latvia Juris Poikans, who also took part in the meeting, noted that the cooperation between the Ukrainian and Latvian cities will be intensified. He added that following the opening of the Honorary Consulate of the Republic of Latvia in Chernihiv on January 25, 2016, the work on support to such initiatives would be carried out in Ternopil and Kharkiv.
Besides, the Ambassador thanked Ukraine and the Ukrainian people for their courage and strength: "Real fight for the independence of your country is underway today. We are grateful for your firmness in this complicated situation. We do understand well what challenges Ukraine is faced with at the moment."
The participants in the meeting discussed joint projects underway in the both countries. In particular, according to deputy of the Saeima of the Republic of Latvia Ainars Mezulis, his country plans to develop two camps for children, whose parents were killed in the anti-terrorist operation, to organize trainings for Ukrainian psychologists and measures on rehabilitation of Ukrainian servicemen.
According to the meeting participants, a key aspect of the Ukrainian-Latvian relations should be permanent exchange of experience in the process of decentralization, reformation of local self-government, consulting in standardization and certification of Ukrainian products in line with the EU standards.
"Latvia will share its experience in holding decentralization with Ukraine. It took us 10 years to tackle this issue in Latvia. Finally the administrative and territorial reform has proved its efficiency for the Latvians," Ainars Mezulis said.
Kodola said that to deepen the bilateral cooperation and to adjust permanent work, the Ukrainian parliamentarians will soon have a working visit to Latvia.
"We are very interested in the experience of our Baltic friends — for successful European integration, and grand-scale reforms inside of the country," the people's deputy said.