Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn believes that it is possible to avoid the repetition of disputes over gas deliveries with Russia such as has occurred in past years.
"There will be no gas war with Russia," he said during a meeting with the heads of the national parliamentary delegations to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly on Tuesday.
Lytvyn said Europe was a consolidating factor for the Ukrainian society and the political elite, and expressed confidence that the parliamentary dimension of the Eastern Partnership will not become "another short-term project that will be forgotten with the start of a new political campaign," the press service of the Ukrainian speaker reported.
While speaking about the format of Belarus’s participation in Euronest, Lytvyn said that Ukraine shares the concern of the international community over the domestic situation in this country, however the policy of isolation of Belarus by the EU is not effective and does not meet the strategic interests of the EU.
Chairman of the Ukrainian Delegation to Euronest Borys Tarasiuk reported that the parliamentary assembly is continuing to work on draft documents, including a draft declaration on Belarus, which are to be considered by the assembly in September.
The Euronest Parliamentary Assembly is the parliamentary component of the EU Eastern Partnership project. It consists of members of the European Parliament and parliaments of Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. After the 2010 elections in Belarus, which were declared as flawed by the OSCE, the membership of Belarus in Euronest was automatically suspended.
