The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine should pass a law on national security before the July summit of NATO, head of the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs Hanna Hopko has said.
“It is extremely important that the Ukrainian parliament, preferably in May, even before the July NATO summit in Brussels in mid-July, adopt the national security law as a whole with all the criteria our Western partners from NATO and the EU have been working on for more than 18 months,” Hopko said at the round table talk on “Reforming the National Security System of Ukraine. The Role of Parliament” in Kyiv on Friday.
According to her, the law should find its place and parliamentary control in the sphere of security and defense, parliamentary control over the Security Service of Ukraine, “so that we could see the distribution of functions between the General Staff and the Security Service, the appointment of a civilian defense minister.”
The parliamentarian also noted that the adoption of the national security law before the NATO summit will help Ukraine on its way to getting a Membership Action Plan (MAP) in NATO. “Ukraine, in addition to receiving the candidate status, is to receive the MAP, to which we were close in 2008. And now we are talking about getting a partner status with special advanced capabilities, which Georgia and Finland have now,” Hopko said.
