BANNING OF THE UKRAINIAN COMMUNIST PARTY

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 that received 2.6 million votes in 2012; deplores the court's decision to make its ruling in private, excluding 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-Communisation 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 its Ukrainian counterpart; 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.