Irish President outlines strategy for resolving Donbas conflict

Wednesday, January 28, 2015 - 10:08 (EET) Section: Latest news

Irish President Michael D. Higgins has outlined a strategy that, in his opinion, will help resolve the conflict in Ukraine from the rostrum of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
He outlined his vision, speaking on Tuesday before the European parliamentarians at the PACE session hall in Strasbourg, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.
“We can not endure aggression trend that is developing in Europe, so the only strategy that will resolve the conflict [in Ukraine], is a strategy of tolerance,” the president, who is professor emeritus of political science and sociology, said.
He believes that the conflict in Ukraine may be resolved only by cessation of violence. According to him, it is an extremely complicated task, which is to be performed by all sides, and it requires a lot of resources, efforts and patience. However, the resolution of the conflict in Ukraine is a challenge for European diplomacy, which should take into account the interests of all the concerned parties. He said that, in this context, PACE remained one of the most important tools that should find an adequate response to the challenges of democratic cohesion.
In addition, according to him, the main obstacle to stability in Europe and in the world is growing inequality. Irish president believes that a special approach to ethics, economy and sociology is an adequate response to this challenge. “Economy is always associated with ethics and social context, such an economy is in the name of man” he said.