European Parliament urges third parties to respect Ukraine's integrity - resolution
BRUSSELS. Feb 27 (Interfax) - The European Parliament called for respecting Ukraine's unity and territorial integrity in a resolution on the situation in Ukraine it adopted at a session in Strasbourg on Thursday.
The resolution "calls on all sides and third countries to respect and support the unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine."
The European Parliament urged "all political forces within Ukraine and all the international actors involved to commit themselves to work for the territorial integrity and national unity of Ukraine, taking account of the cultural and linguistic composition of the country and its history."
The European parliamentarians suggested that the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada and the future government "respect the rights of minorities in the country and the use of Russian and other minority languages."
The resolution proposes that Ukraine should adopt new legislation "in line with Ukraine's obligations under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages."
The European Parliament pointed out that Ukraine's current borders were guaranteed by the U.S., Russia and the United Kingdom in the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances when Ukraine relinquished nuclear weapons and joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The resolution points out that the Russian Federation, together with the two other countries mentioned above, committed itself "to refraining from economic coercion designed to subordinate to its own interest the exercise by Ukraine of the rights inherent in its sovereignty."
