The first parliamentary summit of the Crimea Platform will take place on 25 October in Zagreb, Croatia. Around 50 delegations from around the world will discuss the future of Crimea. The Swiss Parliament will be represented at the summit by Irène Kälin (The Greens/AG).

The participants will adopt a joint statement condemning the illegal occupation of Crimea, which will be issued after the summit. Ms Kälin will hold bilateral meetings with Othmar Karas, first vice-president of the European Parliament, and with the hosts of the event, Gordan Jandroković and Ruslan Stefanchuk, speakers of the Croatian and Ukrainian parliaments.

The parliamentary summit, which is being organised jointly by the Croatian and Ukrainian parliaments, follows on from the inaugural summit of the Crimea Platform in 2021, at which Switzerland was represented by the then president of the National Council, Andreas Aebi (SVP/BE), and the second summit, held online in August and attended by President Ignazio Cassis. This latest conference is taking place only weeks after so-called referendums were held in several regions of Ukraine, which Switzerland condemned as a new violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and international law by Russia.

The Crimea Platform is a Ukrainian initiative to keep the international community’s attention focused on the political situation in Crimea. It aims to enhance the coordination and effectiveness of the international response to the occupation of Crimea, including restrictive measures against Russia.

The already close ties between the Ukrainian and Swiss parliaments have been further strengthened since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In April, Ms Kälin and National Council members Roger Nordmann (SP/VD), Nik Gugger (EVP/ZH) and Yves Nidegger (SVP/GE) visited the Ukrainian Parliament in Kyiv to demonstrate Switzerland’s support for the Ukrainian people. In late February and early March, the National Council and Council of States issued a statement strongly condemning Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. And, in July, a large parliamentary delegation from Switzerland, led by the president of the National Council, took part in the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Lugano, where for the first time since the war began Swiss and Ukrainian parliamentarians were able to discuss the status of the parliamentary reform process in Ukraine and its central role in the country’s recovery.