May 11, 2012
PRESS RELEASE
UWC PRESIDENT EUGENE CZOLIJ MEETS WITH POLISH PRESIDENT BRONISLAW KOMOROWSKI
On May 7-9, 2012, Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) President, Eugene Czolij, travelled to Warsaw for official meetings with Polish President, Bronislaw Komorowski, Speaker of the Senate, Bogdan Borusewicz, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Sejm, Grzegorz Schetyna, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary of State, Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz.
The UWC President was accompanied by UWC Treasurer and Executive Committee member, Zenon Potichnyj, Association of Ukrainians in Poland (AUP) President, Petro Tyma, Polish Sejm Deputy, Miron Sycz, AUP Secretary, Miroslav Kupicz, and Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce Vice President, John Iwaniura.
During the meetings, the UWC President focused on the importance of Ukraine’s Euro-integration and encouraged Polish leaders to help the Ukrainian people to more fully understand the benefits of a pro-European course, and to impress upon them that the main condition to be met for the Association Agreement to be signed and ratified is that the Ukrainian governing authorities must adhere to fundamental European values and respect human rights.
In addition, Eugene Czolij noted the significance of the October Parliamentary elections in Ukraine and appealed for high-levelPolish officials to demand that prominent opposition leaders, Yulia Tymoshenko and Yuri Lutsenko, be released and allowed to participate in these elections. The UWC President also called for a large mission consisting of long- and short-term observers to ensure a more honest and transparent electoral process in Ukraine.
Discussions also centered on calls for a boycott of Euro 2012, which would be very detrimental to the Ukrainian people and negatively impact on Ukraine’s Euro-integration.
To bring attention to issues related to the local Ukrainian community, Polish leaders were presented with resolutions from the II Congress of Ukrainians in Poland.
The UWC President also met with Ukraine’s Ambassador to Poland, Markian Malsky, and the local Ukrainian community to discuss current events in Ukraine and the assessment thereof by high-level Polish officials. Eugene Czolij, together with members of the Executive of the Canadian organization known as Narodnyi Dim, Zenon Potichnyj and John Iwaniura, remitted $5,000 to AUP President Petro Tyma for the Narodnyi Dim in Przemysl.
The UWC is an international coordinating body for Ukrainian communities in the diaspora representing the interests of over 20 million Ukrainians. The UWC has member organizations in 32 countries and ties with Ukrainians in 14 additional countries. Founded in 1967 as a non-profit corporation, the UWC was recognized in 2003 as a non-governmental organization (NGO) by the United Nations Economic and Social Council with special consultative status.
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