Written declaration No. 673 | Doc. 14874 | 11 April 2019

Ukraine should stop discrimination of out-of-country Ukrainians voting rights

Signatories: Ms Alina Ștefania GORGHIU, Romania, EPP/CD ; Ms Regina BASTOS, Portugal, EPP/CD ; Mr Maurizio BUCCARELLA, Italy, NR ; Mr Iulian BULAI, Romania, ALDE ; Mr Ahmet Ünal ÇEVİKÖZ, Turkey, SOC ; Mr Telmo CORREIA, Portugal, EPP/CD ; Ms Jennifer DE TEMMERMAN, France, NR ; Ms Edite ESTRELA, Portugal, SOC ; Ms Doris FIALA, Switzerland, ALDE ; Lord George FOULKES, United Kingdom, SOC ; Mr Paul GAVAN, Ireland, UEL ; Mr Fabien GOUTTEFARDE, France, NR ; Mr Domagoj HAJDUKOVIĆ, Croatia, SOC ; Mr Frank HEINRICH, Germany, EPP/CD ; Ms Martine LEGUILLE BALLOY, France, NR ; Mr Jacques MAIRE, France, NR ; Mr Killion MUNYAMA, Poland, EPP/CD ; Mr Paulo PISCO, Portugal, SOC ; Mr Ion POPA, Romania, ALDE ; Mr Cezar Florin PREDA, Romania, EPP/CD ; Mr Roberto RAMPI, Italy, SOC ; Ms Maria RIZZOTTI, Italy, EPP/CD ; Ms Ulla SANDBÆK, Denmark, UEL ; Mr Stefan SCHENNACH, Austria, SOC ; Ms Martine WONNER, France, NR

This written declaration commits only those who have signed it.

Around 98% of almost 10 million Ukrainian citizens abroad cannot fully use their right to vote. They also don’t have direct representatives in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and they struggle hard to obtain some internal political voice, in defence of their fundamental constitutional rights "to elect and to be elected".

Taking into account the strong involvement of Ukrainian expatriates since the Euromaidan revolution in defending the interest of their country worldwide, the Ukrainian Government should pay more attention and think about how to ensure quotas for representatives of Ukrainian citizens from the out-of-country constituencies. According to the Council of Europe member States’ best practices, the out-of-country election procedures could also include the voting by post, for citizens living abroad.

Another issue of concern is the discrimination of the rights of binational Ukrainian migrants regarding their impossibility to work in the civil service of their country of origin, according to the law voted in 2016.

Migrants can bring strong intellectual and financial resources for democratic transformations in their home countries. The issues related to the participation of Ukrainian expatriates in Ukraine's current reform processes are of major importance and we ask the Ukrainian Government for special vigilance regarding the respect of their fundamental constitutional rights.