7 European FMs: Financial aid top priority in Ukrainian consolidation

Seven foreign ministers from central and southeast Europe all underlined the need for financial assistance to Ukraine at a meeting in Budapest on Monday. The foreign ministers of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia, in an extended meeting of the Central European Visegrad Group (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) noted that together they represent 100 million people. They welcomed the election of a new Speaker of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) and the release from prison of former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko but acknowledged that the situation was still volatile. The foreign ministers also said that the European Union was urgently putting together a financial aid package that was certain to be sizable and would be coordinated with the new Ukrainian government. They repeatedly underlined the need for an inclusive government, warning that a decision taken by the new Rada to make Ukrainian the country's sole official language was a license for trouble. Addressing a news conference after the meeting, Hungarian Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi and Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak said the move would irritate the Russian minority and could push it towards actions that no one wants to see. They also noted that Ukraine was home to Romanian, Bulgarian, Polish, and Hungarian minorities and depriving them of their languages could lead to a loss of identity. Energy was another issue on the table. After declaring their readiness to resume the reverse flow of natural gas to Ukraine, the foreign ministers all called for measures to assure a secure energy supply to their countries at competitive prices.