President, opposition leaders sign agreement on settlement of crisis (+full text, livestream from Kyiv)


President Victor Yanukovych, leader of the Political Council of the Batkivshchyna Arseniy Yatsenyuk, leader of UDAR party Vitaliy Klitschko and leader of Svoboda All-Ukrainian Union Oleh Tyagnybok signed the agreement, unian.info reports.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, Director at the Continental Europe Department of the French Foreign Ministry Eric Fournie witnessed signing of the agreement.

At the same time Russian ombudsman Vladimir Lukin failed to attend the signing ceremony. Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Volodymyr Rybak, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara and Chief of Staff of the Administration of President Andriy Klyuev and ambassadors of the EU countries were also present at the signing ceremony.

We’ll cite the full text of the agreement:

Agreement on the Settlement of Crisis in Ukraine

Concerned with the tragic loss of life in Ukraine,

Seeking an immediate end of bloodshed,

Determined to pave the way for a political resolution of the crisis,

We, the signing parties, have agreed upon the following:

1. Within 48 hours of the signing of this agreement, a special law will be adopted, signed and promulgated, which will restore the Constitution of 2004 including amendments passed until now. Signatories declare their intention to create a coalition and form a national unity government within 10 days thereafter.

2. Constitutional reform, balancing the powers of the President, the government and parliament, will start immediately and be completed in September 2014.

3. Presidential elections will be held as soon as the new Constitution is adopted but no later than December 2014. New electoral laws will be passed and a new Central Election Commission will be formed on the basis of proportionality and in accordance with the OSCE & Venice commission rules.

4. Investigation into recent acts of violence will be conducted under joint monitoring from the authorities, the opposition and the Council of Europe.

5. The authorities will not impose a state of emergency. The authorities and the opposition will refrain from the use of violence.

The Parliament will adopt the 3rd amnesty, covering the same range of illegal actions as the 17th February 2014 law.

Both parties will undertake serious efforts for the normalization of life in the cities and villages by withdrawing from administrative and public buildings and unblocking streets, city parks and squares.

Illegal weapons should be handed over to the Ministry of Interior bodies within 24 hours of the special law, referred to in point 1 hereof, coming into force.

After the aforementioned period, all cases of illegal carrying and storage of weapons will fall under the law of Ukraine. The forces of authorities and of the opposition will step back from confrontational posture. The Government will use law enforcement forces exclusively for the physical protection of public buildings.

6. The Foreign Ministers of France, Germany, Poland and the Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation call for an immediate end to all violence and confrontation.

Kyiv, 21 February 2014

(source)

Belsat TV special news bulletin on Ukrainian developments here.



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