VP/HR — ‘Bandera Year’ in the Ukrainian region of Ivano-Frankivsk

18.4.2019

Question for written answer E-002083-19
to the Commission (Vice-President/High Representative)
Rule 130
Javier Couso Permuy (GUE/NGL)

On 21 February, the director of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, Eduard Dolinsky, condemned the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Council on his Twitter page, after it declared 2019 the Year of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). This militia, led by Stepán Bandera, collaborated with Nazi occupants, actively participated in the Holocaust and committed ethnic cleansing of Jews in the Volhynia region. 200 000 Jews were murdered in Ivano-Frankivsk alone.

1. Is the VP/HR aware of this decision by the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Council?

2. Given that in 2010, the European Parliament deplored the decision to grant Bandera the title of ‘National Hero of Ukraine’ (P7_TA(2010)0035, Point 20), will the VP/HR adopt a similar stance in response to the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Council’s decision?