15 September 2011
President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Petros Efthymiou has stated that he is still concerned about the trials of opposition figures in Ukraine.
"I have expressed my concern in a statement on August 11 and I stand by this. I also expressed my concern to the chairman of the Ukrainian parliament, Volodymyr Lytvyn," he said during a joint briefing with Lytvyn after a bilateral meeting in Kyiv.
Efthymiou also said that the Ukrainian parliament's delegation was carrying out" active and very efficient work" at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. He added that Ukraine would successfully chair the OSCE in 2013 and that Ukraine can count on support of the parliamentary assembly.
"I'm sure that the Ukrainian parliament and the government of Ukraine will successfully manage Ukraine's chairmanship at the OSCE, and they can count on full support from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly," he said.
Lytvyn, in turn, said that OSCE's potential should be completely and effectively realized in dealing with current key issues for the OSCE member states and other countries.
"We also realize the need to resolve many internal issues of Ukraine so that we have the opportunity and grounds for an effective chairmanship of this authoritative structure in 2013," Lytvyn said.
He added that during their meeting they discussed the upcoming parliamentary election in Ukraine."We talked about importance of the parliamentary election in 2012 for Ukraine. Much will depend on the legislation and on how the legal norms would be used during the election campaign," Lytvyn said.
