The EU threatened to abolish visa-free travel for some Ukrainian oligarchs and politicians
MEPs directed an open letter to the head of the Servant of the People party, David Arakhamia, where they warned the politicians and oligarchs responsible for curtailing reforms.
"European Truth" reported this referencing the text of a letter from MEPs Viola von Cramon, Michael Gahler, and Rasa Juknevičienė.
The Members of the European Parliament noted that in the fight against corruption, the Ukrainian government inspired hope in the early days.
"President himself envisaged "Ukraine of his dreams" where "teachers receive real salaries – and corrupt officials real jail time". 17 months later, we cannot but see that the dream is showing cracks and many of those cracks are knee-deep in your party, Mr. Arakhamia," the letter reads.
"We cannot but see that some members of Sluha Narodu are spreading Kremlin-backed disinformation while orchestrating well-organized attacks on independent institutions like NBU, NABU, and SAP. The same members do not shy away from rubbing shoulders with oligarchs and "untouchables" or publicly advocating for cutting ties with the EU," the parliamentarians state.
The authors of the letter remind about the fall back of Ukraine in the rating of corruption perception, reforms backsliding, problems in appointing the leadership of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, ceasing accusations in cases of corrupt judges. According to them, it threatens Ukraine with the loss of EU macro-financial assistance of 1.2 billion euros.
MEPs also cautioned about visa-free travel.
"With regard to the Visa-free regime, it is by no means the intention from the EU side to abolish this great achievement for all Ukrainian and the EU citizens – still, we will reserve the right to impose the specific denial of such freedoms to individual oligarchs and policy-makers who abuse this right for their private illegal activities," the letter reads.
The European Parliament expressed the understanding that besides "dozens of bad apples" in the "Servant of the People", this party is a platform for energetic, smart, and honest lawmakers seeking to put the country's national interests above everything else and fight for its European future.
"We strongly believe that these progressive, reform-oriented lawmakers of Sluha Narodu should become the main buttress of your government in order to reinvigorate the zeal for reforms and put the country back on the democratization track," the MEPs stressed.
We should note that the letter from MEPs emerged after David Arakhamia rejected the alleged "rumors" about abolishing visa-free travel, saying that he would respond only to the letters.
