LUXEMBOURG, 3 July 2019 – Ilkka Kanerva (MP, Finland), who has been nominated to lead the short-term OSCE observer mission for the 21 July early parliamentary elections in Ukraine, today expressed regret that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will no longer be able to observe these elections following recent developments.

The Ukrainian Speaker of Parliament has signed a letter of disinvitation stating that he was forced to do so “taking into account the situation around the reinstatement of Russia’s parliamentary delegation at the PACE without significant progress in the implementation by Russia of seven PACE resolutions.”

“We have a long history of working closely with our colleagues from the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, who are valued and competent partners within our International Election Observation Missions,” Kanerva said. “I regret this situation – we had planned on co-operating closely with the PACE observer delegation as we have in the past, and would have welcomed their input to our findings and conclusions. While this is an unfortunate development impacting this particular observer mission, we look forward to continuing our joint work in the future.”