In its report about the influence of the russian aggression on the EU policy of security and defense, the European Parliament will recommend to grant Ukraine the EU member candidate status. The decision was made on June 8, in spite of the position of certain EU member states. And now, the world is holding its breath, waiting for the this situation to be solved.
Why is this so important for Ukrainians? The thing is, most of us believe that we have been united with Europe for a long time now. The supremacy of law, equality, respect for human dignity and human rights, freedom and democracy are the six basic values of the EU. We’ve been talking about our European integration for so long that all our moves and actions in any direction are more or less defined by only one principle: whether they match the EU standards or not.
Ever since the Revolution of Dignity that took place in 2004, every conscious Ukrainian has been doing everything within his grasp to get rid of being associated with the Soviet Union. The 2014 Revolution of Dignity only boosted this process.
For example, in October 2020, Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament Ruslan Stefanchuk reported that the MPs had registered a draft bill about de-Sovietization of the Ukrainian law. Together with fellow lawmakers, he offered to cancel certain documents of the Soviet time that «pollute» the country’s legislation. That includes almost 1,500 bills issued by the Soviet authorities; these documents are to be recognized null and void. Ukrainian MPs have worked on the draft law for almost a year. Some 23,000 Soviet bills were analyzed within this period, so that the experts could detect the ones that are now obsolete and unnecessary. The Parliament supported the initiative, and in May 2022, President Zelensky signed the approved draft law.
Frankly speaking, of all post-Soviet countries, Ukraine is the one that departed from the Soviet heritage the most tangibly, approaching Europe. Obviously, this is the reason why our country faces all the possible kinds of aggression from russia, which identifies itself as the USSR’s successor in law. The entire world acknowledges the fact that the war for European values is raging on. And these values are being protected by the people who are not even formal members of the EU; but these folks wish for that to happen above all. It’s true that we’ve got our old scores with the neighboring country that oppressed our rights and eventually started a war against us. But it’s crucial that Europe joins our struggle because the joint victory will send a strong signal for other former Soviet republics, and it will weaken the stance of the russian wannabe empire.
People say good things about Ukrainians who temporarily reside in European families. Ruslan Stefanchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Parliament said so during his working meeting with Vera Bergkamp, the speaker of House of Representatives of the Dutch Parliament, and Jan Anthonie Brujin, the head of the Senate. «Six million Ukrainians live in the families all over Europe», he said. «These people are totally Europeans; they are well-adjusted and educated, and they just escape from war, and they really want to return home». We dearly hope they will have a place to return to. Our people are capable of boosting the European society by merging with it. But shall Europe benefit from the situation when the border of the war for European values closes in? It will actually close in if we lose the war against russia.
The Ukrainians inspired the war, said Roberta Metsola, the President of the European Parliament. «Your fight for democracy and European values is our fight, too», she said during the meeting with Ukrainian Parliament Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk on June 8.
Soon we will find out whether Europeans are ready to unite the way Ukrainians did in their fight for the six basic principles: supremacy of law, equality, respect for the human dignity and human rights, freedom and democracy.
