16:00 31.10.2024

Poroshenko urges authorities to comply with European Commission demands on telethon, media freedom

3 min read
Poroshenko urges authorities to comply with European Commission demands on telethon, media freedom

The European Union criticized the activities of the Yedyni Novyny (United News) telethon and its budgetary funding. The European Commission also calls on the authorities to ensure the parliamentary rights of the opposition and resume live broadcasts of the Verkhovna Rada sessions.

When speaking in the Ukrainian parliament, Petro Poroshenko called on the authorities to fulfill the demands of the European Commission, set out in the annual report on enlargement, the political force’s website reports.

"More than 90% of Ukrainians support integration into the European Union and NATO. Yesterday, the main message was the Enlargement Report concerning expansion, which is issued by the European Commission," Poroshenko noted.

"The European Commission criticized the Yedyni Novyny marathon for the first time in its report, which is an annual assessment of candidate countries for EU membership," Poroshenko said, adding that official Brussels is concerned about the lack of objectivity on the telethon and its financing from the state budget. "Brussels recommends gradually restoring media diversity without waiting for the war to end. This means including opposition TV channels. The European Union also drew attention to the activities of the Rada TV channel, which has recorded a lack of opposition views and no broadcasts of parliamentary sessions since 2022," the leader of European Solidarity stated.

"We must take the money allocated for the telethon. We must change the functioning of the Rada TV channel, we must cancel the orders that limit international parliamentary activity," Poroshenko believes.

He also once again called for bringing the draft State Budget for next year into line with military threats. Poroshenko noted that according to the DeepState resource, Selydove was lost yesterday. "We must take the money allocated for the prosecutors. The budget must be military, with a military special fund, with maximum salaries for soldiers at the front and a number of proposals that the European Solidarity has outlined," Poroshenko says.

"I ask that you put to a vote the amendment that was signed by me and Yuzhanina, which takes money from prosecutors, and adopt the budget with the recommendations that you heard," Poroshenko summed up.

As is known, Poroshenko and the deputies of the European Solidarity proposed real sources for filling the State Budget. According to the proposals of the party, all non-targeted expenses should be reduced, and the funds of the military tax should be directed exclusively to the needs of the army. "Our proposals allow us to reduce expenses and mobilize income by UAH 170 billion without increasing the tax burden on poor people. We propose reducing expenses by UAH 105 billion and we propose increasing state budget revenues by UAH 65 billion," Poroshenko said. He also proposes to limit the salaries of officials so that they do not exceed the amount of cash benefits for military personnel on the front lines. However, the mono-majority rejected the opposition's amendments.

 

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