30 November 2012, 10:38
STATEMENT OF THE PRESS SERVICE OF THE VERKHOVNA RADA OF UKRAINE
On November 29 the Press Service of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariat timely apologized before the Moldavian Party for a sad mistake in reporting on the content of the conversation between the Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament Volodymyr Lytvyn and his Moldavian colleague Marian Lupu in Saint Petersburg on November 23. Resting on the official conversation theses of the Ukrainian Party, the Press Service had mistakingly included into the news item information on the problem of continuous refusal to ratify the Agreement on cooperation to ensure the rights of representatives of national minorities by the Moldavian Party.
However, the short nature of the meeting of both speakers in the course of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly, prevented from fully discussing the agenda of Ukrainian-Moldavian relations, including the abovementioned issue, which is widely spread in the international diplomatic practice.
Inter alia, the Ukrainian Party has repeatedly raised the question on ratifying this important Agreement that establishes effective mechanism for protection of rights and interests, as well as ensures comfortable national and cultural living conditions for more than a quarter of million of Moldavians and more than 450 thousands of ethnic Ukrainians on the territory of Moldova. Thus, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Volodymyr Lytvyn discussed this issue in detail with Marian Lupu in the course of his official visit to Kyiv on September 26, 2011. Volodymyr Lytvyn stressed the importance of ratifying this Agreement during his conversation with the Prime Minister of Moldova Vladimir Filat in the course of his official visit to Ukraine on February 3, 2012.
Ukrainian-Moldavian Agreement on cooperation to ensure the rights of representatives of national minorities was signed by Foreign Ministers of both countries in Kishinev three years ago on December 17, 2009. The document was ratified by the Verkhovna Rada on October 2010 and immediately ratified by the President of Ukraine. However, the Agreement cannot come into force, since the Moldavian Party postpones its ratification.
It is no wonder that the speaker of the Moldavian Parliament with such an irritation responded to another reminder, in this way, regarding persistent reluctance on the part of Moldova to unlock the most important bilateral Agreement, which is impatiently waited for by national minorities of both countries.
However, more surprising is the reaction of a number of Ukrainian media outlets regarding inaccuracy of the Press Service of the Verkhovna Rada that perforce reminded the Moldavian Party of the important humanitarian problem of bilateral relations, being delayed by the Moldavian Parliament for political reasons for three years already. Some Ukrainian print and Internet publications took up the logic of the Moldavian Party and started “unmasking the lies” of the Press Service of the Ukrainian Parliament and even that of the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada.
At the same time, such a misunderstanding, so to say, caused by the mistake of the parliamentary Press Service, gives Ukrainian mass media a serious reason to gain insight into the reasons and nature of the problem, settling of which is delayed by the Moldavian Party and, thus, harms interests of ethnic Ukrainians on the territory of Moldova and Moldavians in Ukraine.