Ukraine must pass national security bill this week, speaker says

Ukraine’s parliament must approve the second reading
of the law on national security and defense this week in order to have it ready
for the NATO summit on July 11-12, Speaker Andriy Parubiy told MPs at their
agenda-forming session on June 18. “It’s very important for us to demonstrate
for the summit that Ukraine is ready for cooperation with NATO and is going
down the path of reforms,” he said, as reported by the pravda.com.ua news site.
The bill should be ready for parliament’s review on Wednesday and a vote the
next day, he said. Recall, the bill’s first reading was approved on April 5.

The law on national security and defense provides a
general framework that outlines national defense systems and fundamental
national interests, including ensuring Ukraine’s state sovereignty and
territorial integrity; integration in Europe’s political, economic and legal
sphere; and improving the activity of all the sectors of national security and
defense to meet EU and NATO standards. It preserves the Joint Chiefs of Staff
of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and introduces a Joint Operational Headquarters
of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Zenon Zawada: We don’t see any problems in meeting this deadline. The bigger problem
is Hungary’s ongoing blocking of the NATO-Ukraine commission over an ongoing
conflict over language in the education of ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine. So
far, the Ukrainian delegation has arranged a meeting with its Georgian
counterparts, said Deputy Foreign Minister Olena Zerkal, who added that the
conflict with Hungary won’t be resolved without U.S. intervention.