Ukraine

Lord Campbell-Savours Excerpts

Tuesday 25th March 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Warsi]

The international community recognises the concerns that my noble friend has referred to. It is important that money should flow into Ukraine to give it the stability it so needs, which will ensure among other things that the elections can take place in a stable environment. However, when we offer financial assistance, whether that be through the IMF, an EU assistance package or, indeed, bilaterally, it is important to ensure that it is for a specific purpose and that conditionality is properly looked at. There have been too many concerns about corruption in the past and it is for that reason that one of the areas we are working on with the Ukrainian Government is the issue of recovering assets which previous Governments have frittered away.

[Lord Campbell-Savours (Lab)]

My Lords, will European Union or UK allocations of money to Ukraine be subject to very clear good governance criteria, in particular given that members of Svoboda, the party of the extreme right, hold a number of ministerial posts, including that of Deputy Prime Minister? It is that party which is repeatedly expressing on television, radio and elsewhere its extreme views and hatred of the Russians in the east of the country.

[Baroness Warsi]

It is important to strike a balance. Some money is flowing into Ukraine already in order to provide technical assistance and support, for example, for the Ukrainian authorities to return stolen assets to their country. It is also important that, as the noble Lord says, appropriate conditionality is applied to any IMF or other package that may be agreed.