Press release, 20 August 2015
At the Conference of the Speakers of the Nordic and Baltic Parliaments (NB8) held in Stockholm, Loreta Graužinienė, Speaker of the Seimas, called on the European countries to form a strong and effective alliance in support of Ukraine.
The Lithuanian Speaker, who was on a visit to Ukraine last week, presented the positive developments in the fight against corruption, progress made on visa facilitation with the European Union (EU), and other ongoing relevant reforms in Ukraine. She stressed that the Western countries must maintain sanctions against Russia and provide Ukraine with comprehensive assistance.
“Despite the continuing Russian aggression that hampers viable governmental initiatives, Ukraine should be more focussed on reforms, the fight against corruption, improvement of business environment, consolidation of society, and tackling humanitarian challenges. Meanwhile, we, the Nordic and Baltic Parliaments, must continue to consistently share our practices of democracy, governance and progressive reforms with Ukraine,” underscored Mrs Graužinienė.
According to the Speaker of the Seimas, it is important that the Conference discusses the provision of specific and effective support to Ukraine. She called on the Nordic and Baltic countries to assume greater responsibility for encouraging the EU Member States, in particular Greece, Cyprus and the Czech Republic, to ratify the Association and Free Trade Agreements between the EU and Ukraine as soon as possible.
In Mrs Graužinienė’s view, an important initiative is the opportunity for the EU Member States to cooperate with Ukraine’s non-governmental organisations in providing systematic rehabilitation to persons, who return from war zones, and their relatives.
The Speaker of the Seimas also briefly presented the issue of energy security to parliamentary leaders.
The NB8 agenda includes, but is not limited to, the following items: NB8 bilateral ties with Russia, developments in Europe, fight against terrorism, and the Eastern Partnership.
NB8 (Nordic Baltic Eight) is the regional cooperation format involving Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which has regularly taken place in various areas and at different political levels since 1992. The parliamentary NB8 cooperation began in 1989, with conferences of speakers taking place annually. In 2014, the Conference was held in Lithuania; Oleksandr Turchynov, then Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, took part in it when discussing the situation in Ukraine.
Secretariat of the Speaker of the Seimas, tel. +370 5 239 6002
Neringa Mikėnaitė, Advisor to the Speaker of the Seimas
Tel. +370 5 239 6344, mob. +370 5 698 4275
