The Parliament of Ukraine Adopted Amendments to the Constitution on the Strategic Course for Joining the EU and NATO

Deputies of the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada) adopted in the first reading a bill on amending the Constitution of Ukraine. The amendments introduced to the parliament by the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, fix a strategic course for joining the European Union and NATO in the basic law of the country. 311 deputies in Ukraine’s parliament voted for the bill, while the necessary minimum is 226 votes. President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko arrived at the meeting of the Rada, where the fate of the bill was decided. He said that if Ukraine had once been part of the Alliance, Russia would not have gone to annex the Crimea and would not dare to unleash a conflict in the Donbas. “Russia as an aggressor country does not have and will not have a veto on our accession either to NATO or to the European Union. This is the sovereign right of Ukraine as a country that is confidently going its own way”, stressed the President. On Thursday, November 22, the country's constitutional court approved amendments to the Constitution. The judges sustained that Poroshenko’s bill on the strategic course for Ukraine’s accession to the EU and NATO complies with the legislation of the country. At the next parliamentary session, which will be held in 2019, the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada will have to support the bill in the second reading. Source: Voice of America