Ukrainian MPs head up two PACE committees

MOSCOW. Jan 24 (Interfax) - Yevgenia Kravchuk and Maria Mezentseva, members of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada's permanent delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and Servant of the People faction MPs, have been elected to chair PACE committees.

"I have just been elected chairperson of the PACE Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media, while Maria Mezentseva has been elected chairperson of the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination," Ukrainian media said, citing a statement circulated on social media on Monday.

The parliamentarian promised to do her best to bolster international mechanisms' role in protecting world and Ukrainian cultural heritage.

Kravchuk said that Ukraine will have such powerful simultaneous representation at PACE's ruling bodies for the first time.

As reported, Mezentseva heads the Ukrainian parliament's permanent delegation to PACE.

PACE's winter session opened in Strasbourg, France, on Monday.

Mezentseva, in turn, said that another member of the Ukrainian delegation was elected PACE vice president.

"Ukrainian MP Yelena Khomenko has been elected PACE vice president," Ukrainian media outlets quoted Mezentseva as saying in a social media post.

Khomenko will join the PACE Bureau, which is in charge of forming the agenda and influences many important decisions, Mezentseva said, adding that Khomenko will preside at a PACE session shortly.

Tiny Kox (Netherlands) has been re-elected for a second one-year term as PACE president, Ukrainian media said.

Another candidate for the post of PACE president was Alexander Merezhko, a Ukrainian delegation member and a Servant of the People faction MP heading the Verkhovna Rada's international policy committee.

Kox won the election with 175 votes. Merezhko received 44 votes.