Ukraine deputy minister: MH17 investigation would improve after ratification
There was a lot of anger in the Netherlands after Ukraine president Poroshenko had linked the MH17 investigation to the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement. Dutch voters voted against ratification of the treaty in a referendum. Dutch Prime Minister Rutte is not happy about the result and still did not decide to either respect the outcome of the referendum or to agree with the treaty.
Ukraine stated sponsored media Ukraine Today tried to downscale the scandal in the Netherlands about the words of Poroshenko. “It was a misinterpretation by a journalist who asked PM Rutte to respond”.
At October 25 the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine (European integration issues) Ms. Olena Zerkal had a meeting with a number of Dutch members of Parliament.
Member of Parliament Han ten Broeke stated that the words of Poroshenko were “not the best things to say”
In the same meeting Olena Zerkal stated that the words of Poroshenko were mis-interpreted. She said Ukraine will continue to cooperate in the investigation of MH17.
However, she said something remarkable. Zerkal stated that ratification of the treaty by the Netherlands would improve the investigaton into MH17. To me as an observer it was not clear why ratification would make the investigation better.
She talked about an agreement with Europol. Ukraine and Europol signed an agreement. Article 1, point 2 has a restriction saying ” The agreement does not authorise the transmission of data related to an identified individual or identifiable individuals’
I guess Zerkal meant that Ukraine under the current JIT or Europol agreement cannot hand over all the investigation data. She talked about data protection laws in Ukraine. Zerkal said that the Ukraine parliament extended an agreement between Ukraine and the Netherlands recently.
The Ukraine-EU Association Agreement is not required to allow Ukraine to hand over data. An adjustment of the Ukraine-Europol agreement is enough. I guess the JIT agreement also allows the transfer of data.
Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel who attended the meeting said Ukraine is still making a link between MH17 and the treaty. See the video interview in this post. Making the link is a form of blackmail according to van Bommel.
Spokesman Wim de Bruin of the Dutch prosecutor did not want to comment on this issue.
At October 26 during the plenary debate in the Dutch Parliament member Han ten Broeke stated that the EU-Ukraine treaty makes it possible for Ukraine to extradite suspects to the Netherlands. Ukraine constitution prevents extradiction now.
This is not the case. Article 27 of the Vienna Convention states that national law is no justification for violating international obligations.
At the plenary debate in Dutch parliament member Harry van Bommel mentioned the statement of Zerkal.
‘De samenwerking met Oekraïne in de zaak kan ook zonder associatie-akkoord’ – tegen sputterende Koenders. pic.twitter.com/3nkEuFbKiT
— Bart Nijman ()
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