Does Ukraine Fear Control by Europe?

According to delegation member Serhiy Holovaty, the official mass media campaign unfolded on the eve of the visit to Strasbourg was aimed at making the public think that PACE sanctions, including a possible suspension of Ukraine's Council of Europe membership, had been exceptionally caused by failure to approve a moratorium on capital punishment.

People's Deputy Holovaty is convinced that the state is spreading this ideological construct only to cover up the fruits of its policy of eliminating democratic institutions and to divert public attention from other problems.

The Council of Europe is today much more concerned about the state of democracy in Ukraine, encroachments on the freedom of speech, illegal interference of the executive power in the election process, and cynical pressure on the judicial power.

Socialist Deputy Ivan Chyzh opined that the executive might be even interested in the suspension of Ukraine's membership of the Council of Europe during the 1999 election campaign in order to establish control over the press, the judiciary, and to restrict monitoring by international observers of the election process.

It should be noted that the issue of the ratification of Protocol No. 6 (regarding the abolition of capital punishment) has now reached a compromise: the Constitutional Court has received a parliamentary request to pronounce unconstitutional Article 24 of the Criminal Code.