President of the European Parliament and the chairmen of all political groups and factions have decided to limit the official programme of the visit of MEPs to Ukraine only by visiting Kiev because of the security situation. Vice-speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Iryna Gerashchenko wrote about that on her Facebook page.
"The visit of the European Parliament members - the members of the Parliamentary Association Committee started to be prepared in May. MEPs themselves expressed a desire to visit not only Kiev, but also the East," - reminded I.Geraschenko.
"And then two days before the start of the PAC visit Ukrainian side received an official letter that the President of the European Parliament and all the heads of political groups and factions (the so-called conference of the heads of the European Parliament headed by President of the EP) had discussed the forthcoming visit of the delegation to Ukraine and decided to limit official programme only by visiting Kiev because of the security situation," - she said.
"Of course, one cannot prohibit anything to MPs," so the EP has banned for its employees to travel to the east of Ukraine, - writes I. Geraschenko.
"It is not allowed for translators or any member of the European Parliament to go - because of the security situation. The MPs were recommended to limit the official visit by visiting only safe Kiev, and then, they say, who wants - it is their informal business", - said the Vice-speaker.
"We have some questions for our European colleagues: how do you insist on holding elections on the territories where it is dangerous for your employees to stay even for an hour. What about observers, not talking about the security of polling stations ... Clearly, it is double standards and we will talk about it at every international meeting," - wrote Gerashchenko.
Three MEPs, she said, still decided to go to the east of Ukraine to see the situation in the Donbass. They are Rebecca Harms, Michal Boni and Jaromir Stetina.