Inter-parliamentary dialogue | Embassy of Ukraine to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Inter-parliamentary dialogue

12 August 2020 13:30

Ukrainian-British inter-parliamentary dialogue was established in 1993 with the visit to the UK of the delegation of the Ukrainian Parliament headed by its Chair Ivan Pliusch. In 1994 British Parliamentary delegation headed by Lord Howe of Aberavon visited Ukraine in order to get acquainted with the work of the Ukrainian Parliament.

Nowadays, representatives of both Parliaments actively cooperate within the framework of such international organizations as the OSCE, Council of Europe, NATO.

The All-party Parliamentary Group on Ukraine created in the British Parliament in January 1992 actively contributes to the inter-parliamentary dialogue between countries. Its main objective is to promote the development of bilateral relations between the UK and Ukraine.

Representatives of the UK Parliament from different political parties - Conservative, Liberal-Democratic, Labour - are members of this APPG.

Until February 2020 the All-party Parliamentary Group on Ukraine in the UK Parliament was been chaired by Conservative MP John Whittingdale, who left this position after being appointed Minister of State for Media and Data in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Since 2 June 2020 the APPG on Ukraine is chaired by Conservative MP Mark Pritchard.

Recent inter-parliamentary contacts (2018-2020)

On 8 October 2020, during an official visit to the United Kingdom, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Speaker of the House of Commons of the British Parliament Sir Lindsay Hoyle. The meeting was also attended by the heads of the Ukrainian-British inter-parliamentary "friendship groups".

On 19 May 2020 took place a virtual meeting "Ukrainian-British Interparliamentary Dialogue: Foreign Policy Dimension", where more than 20 MPs from both parliament's "friendship groups" participated.

24-26 February 2020 the Chair of Ukraine's Parliamentarian Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko paid a visit to the UK.

10-15 October 2019 the Permanent Delegation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly visited the UK to take part in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly 65^th Annual Session. During the visit, Ukrainian MPs held a number of meeting with their colleagues from the UK Parliament.

23 August 2019 by the Decree of the President of Ukraine №622/2019 three members of the UK All-party Parliamentary Group on Ukraine – John Whittingdale, Pauline Latham, Stewart McDonald – were awarded The Order of Merit for outstanding achievements in promoting bilateral relations.

In March-April and July 2019 members of the UK Parliament paid visits to Ukraine as international observers at presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine within the PACE (presidential elections) and the OSCE PA delegations (presidential and parliamentary elections).

In October 2018 member of the Ukrainian Parliament Nataliya Katser-Buchkovska took part in the session on countering Russian disinformation, held in the framework of the SNP Annual Conference (Glasgow).

17 September 2018 the delegation of the members of the UK Parliament from the Scottish National Party (SNP) paid a visit to Ukraine.

12-15 June 2018 Chairman of the Parliament of Ukraine (Verkhovna Rada) Andriy Parubiy paid a visit to the UK.

17-21 May 2018 the delegation of the members of the UK Parliament from the Scottish National Party (SNP) visited Kyiv and the front line territories under Ukrainian control in Donbas.

8-9 May 2018 First Deputy Chairman of the Parliament of Ukraine Iryna Herashchenko visited the UK, where she held meetings in the Foreign Office and with the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the UK Parliament.

On 4^th anniversary of occupation of Crimea the delegation of prominent Crimean Tatars visited the UK on 13-15 March 2018 headed by the member of the Ukrainian Parliament Mustafa Dzhemilev.

26 February-2 March 2018 the delegation of the Committee on Budget of the Ukrainian Parliament visited the UK within the Westminster Foundation for Democracy’s programme of strengthening the inter-parliamentary cooperation.