“Ukrainian political leaders have major tasks ahead of them,” says the President of the Storting, Olemic Thommessen. “They must reform the country, manage the economic crisis and resolve the conflict with Russia. At the same time it is important that they continue their reform efforts with undiminished vigour. In our meetings with Ukrainian politicians, we will highlight issues having to do with developing democratic institutions, parliamentary procedures and combatting corruption, and we will remind them to be steadfast in continuing the reform project.”

For the fifth time in less than a year, he will meet key Ukrainian parliamentarians to discuss the country’s reform process.

A year has passed

This is the second time the Nordic-Baltic parliamentary presidents have travelled to Kiev together. Last March they launched a Nordic-Baltic initiative to help Ukrainian parliamentary officials create an efficient, well-run Ukrainian parliament.

One result of last year’s visit to Kiev was that the Storting (Norway’s parliament) was able to welcome nine Ukrainian parliament members to Oslo for a study visit in November.

The Ukrainian process has been under way since 2014. Once again, the parliamentary presidents from the same participating countries are heading to Kiev.

“We have to show patience, but also show them recognition for pushing the process forward,” says Mr Thommessen. “The other message we have for Ukrainian politicians is that they must give the population a sense of ownership in the policies under discussion. It will take a long time to raise the country’s welfare level, and getting people to understand that will be a challenge.”

Thommessen adds: “We will be evaluating our continued support on the basis of the visit.”

Meeting key players

During this visit the President of the Storting and the rest of the Nordic-Baltic delegation will meet Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament), Volodymyr Groysman, as well as parliamentary leaders and the group of Rada representatives who call themselves Euro-optimists. Also on the agenda are meetings with the national anti-corruption agency and with NGOs.

In addition, Thommessen will meet with the country directors of the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, respectively Qimiao Fan and Francis Malige.