German Deputies Advise Poroshenko to Request the Resignation of the Ukranian Prosecutor General
The Committee on EU Affairs of the German Bundestag is concerned over the process of reforms in Ukraine. The members of the delegation of the German Parliament stated this on the 2nd of February at a press conference in Kiev after a number of meetings with representatives of the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian government and other non-governmental organizations.
“We recognize the progress of Ukraine in the process of making reforms. Many laws were adopted but now they should be brought to life. We will follow this,” Norbert Spinrath, a deputy from the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SDP) said. According to him, their delegation has heard repeatedly at numerous meetings with community activists in Ukraine that the main obstacle on the country’s path to reforms is the current Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Viktor Shokin.
“The main thing now is the fight against corruption and reforms to the Prosecutor General’s Office; but these reforms are not reliably executed under the current head of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office,” Spinrath said. He noted that during the meeting with the President of Ukraine, German parliamentarians intend to advise Petro Poroshenko to remove all obstacles on the way to reforms.
“There is little time left for reforms. The youth, who came to Maidan, standing up for European values, will lose patience because they don’t want to live in a corrupt country any longer,” the head of the Bundestag Committee on EU Affairs, Gunther Krichbaum added. According to him, the issue of resolving staff problems in implementing reforms was raised at the meetings in Kiev.
Moreover, German deputies have been talking a lot about the Minsk Agreements; in particular, that Germany will not be in favor of lifting sanctions against Russia until peace is finally established in eastern Ukraine.
“These sanctions were imposed because of Russia’s behavior and they don’t listen to anything else. Sanctions will remain in place. For the sake of peace, Kiev has to fulfil its obligations in order to persuade our community that they should be saved,” the representative of the Alliance 90/Greens parliamentary group, Manuel Sarrazin said.
Members of parliament noted that the topic of war in eastern Ukraine disappeared from the headlines of German newspapers because Europeans have the impression that things have stabilized in the country.
“We want to liven up the debate on Ukraine. After all, everyone knows that the Minsk Agreements were made, but they have not been implemented. There is no real ceasefire in eastern Ukraine,” Gunther Krichbaum stated. According to him, constant ceasefire violations in Donbas should be the focus of Munich’s Convention on Security, which is scheduled for mid-February.