REPORT

INTRODUCTION

The Canadian NATO Parliamentary Association has the honour to present its report on the Joint visit of the Ukraine-NATO Interparliamentary Council (UNIC) and the Sub-Committee on NATO Partnerships (PCNP) meetings which were held in Hostomel, Ukraine from April 4-7, 2017. The Parliament of Canada was represented by Senator Raynell Andreychuk.

Overview

The Ukraine-NATO Interparliamentary Council was created in 1998 to bring greater transparency to the implementation of the NATO–Ukraine Charter and to provide a forum for parliamentary involvement in the growing co-operation between NATO and Ukraine. Since then, however, the agenda has expanded and the UNIC meeting now provides an opportunity for Ukrainian parliamentarians and members of Parliaments from across the Alliance to discuss any issue of concern.

Ukraine continues to face serious challenges to its security. We firmly condemn Russia’s ongoing illegal occupation of Crimea and direct support for armed militants in Donbas. We reaffirm our full support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and call for an immediate end to the daily violations of the ceasefire and for the full implementation of the Minsk agreements through the consolidation of the Normandy format and other mechanisms.

Cooperation with NATO helps Ukraine address current threats to its national security, preserve its territorial integrity, strengthen its defence capability, and implement important and wide-ranging reforms.

Ukraine has made clear that the strategic objective of its Euro-Atlantic integration process is to achieve the standards required for eventual NATO membership, an objective reiterated in recent policy documents including the National Security Strategy, the Military Doctrine, the Concept for the Development of the Security and Defence Sector, and the Strategic Defence Bulletin. Streamlining of efforts has improved thanks to the work of the office of the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and the special intergovernmental coordination committee.

We also note the significant growth in support for NATO among the Ukrainian people, including growing support for potential NATO membership.

The Annual National Programme (ANP) remains the main tool through which Ukraine defines the concrete objectives of its cooperation with NATO. We welcome the progress achieved under the ANP for 2016, and look forward to the prompt adoption of the ANP for 2017. We urge Ukrainian authorities to use the full potential of the ANP and of the Comprehensive Assistance Package adopted by Allies and Ukraine at the Warsaw Summit in July 2016. The ANP’s goals, ambitions and timelines should reflect Ukraine’s objective of eventual NATO membership.

Reform objectives should extend beyond the armed forces to the broader security and defence sector, including the Security Service of Ukraine, and be spelled out comprehensively in the future framework Law on National Security.

Efforts should also focus more on the broader political, economic and legal objectives set in the ANP, including strengthening the rule of law and the fight against corruption. If used to its full potential, the ANP can be a truly transformational tool for Ukraine.

To this end, parliament and civil society need to be more closely involved in monitoring and supporting implementation of the ANP.

Civil society plays an essential role in particular to inform the public about the objectives, costs and benefits of Euro-Atlantic integration. In this sense, a closer partnership with civil society can help support the objectives set in the 2017-2020 State Programme for public information on Euro-Atlantic integration.

The Verkhovna Rada is committed to playing its part in supporting ANP implementation and related reforms. However, more needs to be done to strengthen parliamentary control over the policies related to Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration, particularly through the work of the Rada’s committees.

In turn, we urge Allies to deliver on the assistance to the reform of Ukraine’s security and defence sector, continue to develop the Comprehensive Assistance Package, and enhance efforts to promote better public information about NATO.

We also call on Allied parliamentarians to continue to build support for Ukraine in their national parliaments and maintain our unity and resolve.

As the parliamentary counterpart to the NATO-Ukraine Commission, UNIC provides an essential forum for members of parliament to monitor and support the objectives of NATO-Ukraine cooperation, and we intend to make full use of this forum in 2017. We look forward to Ukraine’s hosting of a Rose-Roth seminar in July, which will coincide with the celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the Ukraine-NATO Charter on a Distinctive Partnership.

** This report has been prepared by the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Secretariat. See the original report.

Respectfully submitted,

Leona Alleslev, M.P.
Chair of the Canadian NATO Parliamentary Association