EP won’t recognise Russian ‘constitutional consultation’ in occupied Crimea

“A constitutional referendum took place in Russia from 25 June to 1 July. The European Parliament has not been invited to observe this electoral process, and consequently will neither comment on the process nor on the results that will be announced afterwards. No individual Member of the European Parliament has been mandated to observe or comment on this electoral process on its behalf,” reads the statement posted on website of the European Parliament.

The co-chairs stated that “any Member of the European Parliament who decided to observe this electoral process in the Russian Federation, or in the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula, where the European Union does not and will not recognise the holding of this consultation, has done so on her/his own initiative and should under no circumstances through any statement or action, associate her/his participation with the European Parliament.”

As reported, on June 30, Mykola Tochytskyi, Ukraine's ambassador to Belgium and Ukraine's representative to the EU, appealed to the European Parliament's leadership with a request to condemn the illegal visit of French MEPs to the Russian-occupied Crimea.

First Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Emine Dzheppar asked French Ambassador to Ukraine Etienne de Poncins to officially respond to the illegal visit of a delegation of French MEPs led by Thierry Mariani to Crimea on June 30 - July 2 to observe illegal voting in the occupied territory of the Ukrainian peninsula.

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