2024-04-17 23:46:58
The Ministry of Justice informs the agency LETA that the Minister of Justice Inese Lībiņa-Egnere (JV) today in Strasbourg, France, during a meeting with the Secretary General of the EP Marija Pejčinović Burič, emphasized the need to urgently use legal solutions to prevent the further presence of EP employees, Russian citizens in the organization two years after Russia’s exclusion from EP.
During the meeting, the future development of the Ukrainian Loss Register, whose operation is based on the “Riga Principles” adopted at the September 2023 conference in Latvia, was also discussed.
The EP is one of the leaders in the support of Ukraine – it develops the Register of Ukrainian Losses, resolves issues regarding the establishment of an international tribunal for the crimes of Russian aggression in Ukraine, as well as the use of Russian assets to cover the losses caused to Ukraine and other issues related to Russia’s responsibility.
Lībiņa-Egnere points out that the values of the EP are based on human rights, therefore, defending these values in principle, two years ago the members of the EP excluded Russia from their midst, because it is carrying out genocide against the Ukrainian people and has no right to be in the organization, acting against its goals and discrediting it. Although Russia is excluded, more than 70 of its nationals working in the EP, based on staff quotas once allocated to Russia, continue their work as if nothing had happened. The activities of citizens of excluded Russia in the EP discredit this organization, therefore it is not acceptable to Latvia. The General Secretariat must urgently seek legal solutions to prevent the situation, the minister emphasizes.
At the same time, the General Secretary of the EP stated that the General Secretariat currently does not see legally justified solutions to prevent Russian employees from working in the EP.
Pejčinoviča Buriča noted the significant contribution that Latvia made during its presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the EP from May to November 2023, emphasizing the importance of the adoption of the “Riga Principles” and their further impact on the creation of the Ukrainian Loss Register.
Currently, the Ukrainian Loss Register has received around 1,000 loss applications and it is expected that their volume will reach eight million. The central question is who will cover these losses. Therefore, on April 16, the EP Parliamentary Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution in which it was recommended for the first time that the frozen Russian assets be transferred to the Ukrainian Reconstruction Fund and used in compensation for the victims.
2024-04-17 23:46:58