Banning the newspaper of the Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU)

27.8.2019

Question for written answer E-002564-19
to the Commission
Rule 138
Lefteris Nikolaou-Alavanos (NI)

Following the unacceptable ruling of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on 16 July imposing a ban on the KPU, Kiev Administrative Court on 19 August, taking advantage of the entire anti-communist legal arsenal amassed by successive Ukrainian governments, has banned the KPU’s newspaper.

These decisions mark a further escalation of anti-communism. They forbid political action by Communists, violating their right freely to disseminate their ideas. They demonstrate the hypocritical nature of the declarations on ‘human rights and freedoms’ and ‘freedom of the press’ that the EU systematically champions whenever it is confronted with governments that are not to its liking and its interests are at stake.

In the case of Ukraine, as well as Poland and the Baltic states, governments with EU support are promoting such provocative anti-communist decisions on the basis of a historically illiterate reading of the past which consists in equating communism with the monstrosity that is fascism. At the same time, the government of the Ukraine and Ukrainian business groups are enjoying the benefits of a series of agreements with the EU, such as the so-called EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, at the expense of the Ukrainian people.

In the light of all the above, how does the Commission view these bans on the KPU and its newspaper and the machinations under way to ban the spread of communist ideas?