Press Release

UKRAINE’S EURO-ATLANTIC FUTURE: INTERNATIONAL FORUM III

Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic Future: International Forum III was held in Brussels at the Euro-Parliament's venerable Eastman Building on March 30-31, 2009.   The two-day conference heard over 30 government and major non-governmental speakers from Ukraine as well as Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic neighbors and partners, including Canada, the EU, NATO and the US. Nearly 100 members of Brussels' EU & NATO diplomatic corps registered to be participants in the event.

The forum program consisted of eight plenary sessions and three focus sessions. During the eight plenary sessions, featured presenters, all of parliamentary or ambassadorial level diplomatic rank, spoke about Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic future within the context, respectively, of EU-UA, NATO-UA, Baltic Council-UA, Visegrad Forum-UA, Weimar Triangle-UA, Canada-UA and US-Ukrainian relations; among the group were two legendary figures that helped guide post Communist East Central Europe into EU and NATO: Vytautas Landsbergis and Janusz Onyszkiewicz. A highlight 'working lunch' session focused on the "Russian Question" and Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic ambitions; the remarks were delivered by veteran Ukrainian diplomat: [Amb.-Ret.] Yuri Scherbak. An 'opening remarks' event was treated to a special presentation by Ukraine's Ambassador to NATO Ihor Sahach, meant to 'stress' Ukraine's readiness to become a member of the fabled security alliance; a 'closing remarks' event listened to a special evaluation by the League of Ukrainian Canadians' Director of International Relations and representative of the International Conference in Support of Ukraine Ihor Kozak, intended to provide the input and insights of Ukraine's powerful Diaspora.

The forum’s sponsors included the Embassy of Ukraine to the United States, the American Foreign Policy Council, the Center for US-Ukrainian Relations, the European Movement Ukraine, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, the Mission of Ukraine to the EU, the Mission of Ukraine to NATO, the NATO Information Centre/Ukraine, the Open World Program at the Library of Congress and the Polish-Ukrainian Cooperative Foundation.  The forum's patrons included Ukraine Air International, Self Reliance [NY] Federal Credit Union, the League of  Ukrainian Canadians and the European Movement International. The League of Ukrainian Canadians would like to thank the Toronto Branch of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress for its financial assistance.

The event’s origins can be traced to the work that a number of the named sponsors and patrons have done together in the last decade organizing the now traditional Ukraine’s Quest for Mature Nation Statehood Roundtable Series, held each year during the fall in Washington DC. In late 2006, the RT Series organizers turned to harnessing the resources & momentum created by the DC based Quest Roundtables and channeling the energy into a new internationally based discussion series in Kyiv, Ukraine’s gold domed capital about the single most critical issue facing Ukraine today -ie- its Euro-Atlantic Future. They succeeded beyond their wildest imagination; Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic Future Forum I [2007] and II [2008] proved to be remarkable and globally newsworthy events. As a result, a plan was unveiled to run three such events a year: one in Kyiv, a second in Washington (under the Quest moniker) and a final gathering in one of the various capitals of Europe [Berlin, Warsaw, Brussels, London, Paris]. Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic Future Forum III has now become the first fruit of the " European Capitals" circuit; it has also apparently itself borne a further fruit. At the Brussels gathering, Ukraine's envoy to Canada, Ambassador Ihor Ostash and Canada's envoy to Ukraine, Ambassador Daniel Caron, both pledged to support adding a fourth annual conference to the circuit---a yearly forum in Ottawa.

Press release prepared by Walter Zaryckyj, Executive Director, Center for US-Ukrainian Relations

N.B. The League of Ukrainian Canadians www.lucorg.com is a member of the International Conference in Support of Ukraine.