At Via Carpatia forum, Chairman speaks of national unity, regional development and European integration amid Russian aggression

The Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andriy Parubiy spoke at the Forum of Central and Eastern European Countries "Via Carpatia", which takes place on June 14-15, 2019 in the village of Verkhovyna of the Ivano-Frankivsk oblast (region).

In A.Parubiy’s opinion, it is very important to speak at this conference on "how to make this land of legends economically successful, how to bring prosperity and a decent life for people". According to him, the Carpatian Strategy is a plan and a way to revive the Carpathians through attracting European funds, luring investors to this land, and with the use of the Alps-and-Danube experience of the Europeans to implement a European strategy on the pathway to European integration.

"The issues of European strategy and European integration are two of the key points that are currently determining entire Ukraine," said the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.  "For Ukraine, European integration is in fact a sign equal to Ukrainian independence".

A.Parubiy reminded that alongside Ukraine there is a huge aggressor country - the Russian Federation, which is doing its best to obstruct Ukraine’s path to Europe, to NATO. "It was therefore very important to make these things irreversible. With this in mind, President Petro Poroshenko initiated constitutionalization of our way to the EU and NATO, thus making it to be a key direction of Ukraine's foreign policy. So that nobody could ever change this direction. It is European integration, it is Ukrainian church, it is Ukrainian language," he specified and sent his separate thanks to Mykola Kniazhytskyi, MP, for his titanic work that had been carried out aiming to adopt the language law.

The task Ukrainians are now facing is to protect and develop all these values. "We must remember this as the country is standing on the brink of global changes. We all must coalesce in order to prevent any blow at our fundamental values - both the EU and NATO, and the language, and the church, and the de-communization, to unite everybody in Ukraine on the way to the European Union," he emphasized.

 Andriy Parubiy informed about the content of the conference, which is thought to become a firm discussion platform to talk over philosophical, political, ideological and geopolitical dimensions of routine affairs. In this context, A.Parubiy appealed to everyone with the words: "Today we are responsible for all those who have failed to wait until that day and to have this opportunity to create and build up Ukraine as we do at present.  And I am sure we must be fully responsible for the mission we are facing today".

 The head of parliament noted that another very important task for Ukraine is to raise the Carpatian strategy issues high - uniting Ukrainians both at the local and provincial levels as well as at the level of central government.

 "I am convinced that through this conference we shall receive a new potent impetus to finally bring this strategy to reality so that our Carpatians and the region could reach a high level of efficiency and success,” the politician undescored.