Speaker of the Seimas holds a remote meeting with Ruslan Stefanchuk

Press release, 5 April 2023 

Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, Speaker of the Seimas, has held a remote meeting today with Ruslan Stefanchuk, Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. She invited her colleague to a high level meeting of Speakers of Parliaments of NATO member countries to be held in Vilnius. The Speakers discussed Ukraine’s preparations for the EU membership negotiations and the country’s prospects for NATO membership. Ms Čmilytė-Nielsen assured her Ukrainian counterpart of Lithuania’s continued support for the Ukrainian struggle for freedom and a European and democratic future.

‘At the meeting, we discussed the preparation of the Verkhovna Rada for the EU accession negotiations. Mr Stefanchuk said that one of the most important tasks at the moment was to harmonise the Ukrainian legal system with the EU acquis. We agreed on the need to continue coordinating efforts on further sanctions and on isolating Russia internationally, including by banning Russian and Belarusian athletes from international sports competitions,’ explained Ms Čmilytė-Nielsen.

The Speaker of the Seimas invited Mr Stefančuk to the high level meeting of Speakers of Parliaments of NATO member countries to be held in Vilnius on 1–3 June this year, which he promised to attend.

‘I told my colleague that Lithuania has set ambitious goals for the agenda of the Vilnius Summit, including Ukraine’s future membership of NATO, and that these goals will be reflected in a special resolution to be submitted to the Seimas for consideration,’ said Ms Čmilytė-Nielsen.

Photo by Ilona Šilenkova, Office of the Seimas

Ilona Petrovė, Spokesperson for Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, Speaker of the Seimas, tel. +370 5 239 6030, mob. +370 698 42 071, e-mail: [email protected], www.lrs.lt