Banning Of The Ukrainian Communist Party

EDM number 973 in 2015-16, proposed by Paul Flynn on 19/01/2016.
Categorised under the topics of Eastern Europe, International politics and government and Political parties.

That this House is concerned by the District Court of Kiev's actions banning the Communist Party of Ukraine, a party with 100,000 members and which received 2.6 million votes in 2012; deplores the court's decision to make its ruling in private, excluding the public and legal representation for the Communist Party of Ukraine, despite a previous hearing wherein judges refused to hear the original case against the party citing grounds it was politically motivated; notes the recent joint statement by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the Venice Commission concerning the De-Commissioning Decree signed by President Poroshenko of Ukraine in July 2015 describing clauses in the decree banning political parties as disproportionate, problematic with regard to the right of individuals to freedom of association and particularly for ensuring pluralism and the proper functioning of democracy; calls on the Government to raise these concerns with their Ukrainian counterparts; and further calls for the ban to be addressed by the EU-Ukraine Association Council as it violates the terms of the EU Association Agreement regarding good governance.

This motion has been signed by a total of 13 MPs.