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Deal ratified, Ukraine deepens Europe ties
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UKRAINE’S parliament ratified an agreement to strengthen economic and political ties with the European Union yesterday, and passed legislation to grant autonomy to the rebellious east as part of a peace deal.
The ratification vote draws a line under the issue that last year sparked Ukraine’s crisis, which resulted in the ousting of the president, the annexation of Crimea by Russia and a war with the Russia-backed separatists that has killed more than 3,000 people.
In a speech to legislators, President Petro Poroshenko called the vote a “first but very decisive step” toward bringing Ukraine fully into the European Union.
Poroshenko also said those who died during the protests and during fighting in the east “gave up their lives so that we could take a dignified place among the European family.”
“Since World War II, not a single nation has paid such a high price for their right to be European,” he said.
In Brussels, EU lawmakers overwhelmingly ratified the agreement.
“The message this sends could not be clearer: the European Parliament supports Ukraine in its European vocation,” said Martin Schulz, the president of the EU Parliament. “The European Parliament will continue defending a united and sovereign Ukraine,” he said.
In stark contrast to that fanfare, parliament went behind closed doors earlier in the day to approve two bills granting greater autonomy to rebellious regions in the east, as well as amnesty for many of those involved in the fighting.
One bill calls for three years of self-rule in parts of the war-torn east and calls for local elections in November. It grants concessions that were not offered in a presidential peace plan that was put forward in June, such as local oversight on court and prosecutor appointments and local control of police forces.
A separate bill called for amnesty for those involved in the eastern conflict, although the law does not cover those who are suspected or charged with several dozen crimes including murder, sabotage, rape, kidnapping, and terrorism.
The law also does not grant amnesty to those who have attempted to kill Ukrainian law enforcement officials and servicemen — meaning that most of the separatists, who have waged war for five months on government forces, would not fall under amnesty.
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