EP socialists urge EU pressure on Russia over Ukrainian elections

Xinhua News Agency (China), 25 November 2004

BRUSSELS—The Socialist party group in the European Parliament (EP) called for a formal intervention in the European Union (EU)-Russia Summit on Thursday to put pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin over the elections in Ukraine.

At a meeting of the EP group leaders in Brussels, Socialist party group vice-president Hannes Swoboda presented the demand to EP President Josep Borrell.

A press release quoted the group leader Martin Schulz and vice-president Jan Marinus Wiersma as saying: We believe that during the EU-Russia Summit in The Hague, a clear appeal must be made to President Putin for him to cooperate with the EU in solving the acute crisis in Ukraine.

Both the EU and Russia have commitments through the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Council of Europe to elections being free and fair.

The elections in Ukraine by no means met the standards that we expect and we must now work in partnership to deal with what is potentially a dangerous situation, they said.

The EU said in a statement that it regrets that the Central Election Committee in Ukraine had decided to announce final election results. The EU does not recognize the results announced by the committee. It also urged the Ukrainian authorities to investigate all complaints about the electoral process.