International

At the request of SP Senator Tiny Kox, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will meet on Friday to discuss the political crisis in Ukraine. Senator Kox, who chairs the left political group in PACE, in which every European parliament is represented, wants to look into whether Europe’s biggest treaty-based organisation might possibly be able to offer its aid in seeking a solution to the present political crisis. ‘Now that international governmental diplomacy seems for the moment to be stymied,’ says Kox, ‘we need to look into whether via the route of parliamentary diplomacy openings can be found.’

The meeting will take place in Paris, where the PACE Standing Committee is due to assemble this week. According to Kox, there is every reason to be concerned about the state of democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Ukraine, matters on which Ukraine, as a Council of Europe member state, has made the same commitments as the other forty-six members. The violent confrontations in Kiev, the controversial ousting of President Yanukovych by the national parliament and the subsequent military action by Russian troops in the autonomous Crimean republic, where the Russian Black Sea fleet is stationed, have raised great tensions in Ukraine and in the international community.

The SP Senator has in the last few days made contact with MPs from both Ukraine and Russia. ‘Everyone says that further violence must be prevented but for the moment nobody has a plan as to how that can be achieved,’ he says. ‘Now that inter-governmental diplomacy seems for the moment to be stymied,’ says Kox, ‘we need to look into whether via the route of parliamentary diplomacy openings can be found. Doing nothing is now not an option.’