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European Council to consider possibility of holding referendum on Ukraine’s federalization

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said that the issue will be considered in the broader context of stabilizing the situation in Ukraine

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton EPA/JULIEN WARNAND

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton

© EPA/JULIEN WARNAND

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LUXEMBOURG, April 14. /ITAR-TASS/. The European Council will consider the possibility of holding a referendum on Ukraine’s federalization, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton said at the meeting of the foreign ministers of 28 member-countries of EU.

Ashton said that the issue will be considered in the broader context of stabilizing the situation in Ukraine, which will also be discussed at the meeting of foreign ministers of Russia, US, EU and Ukraine in Geneva. Ashton added that permanent contact on the matter was retained with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Earlier, Ukraine’s interim parliament-appointed President, parliamentary Speaker Oleksandr Turchynov has not ruled out the possibility of declaring a national referendum, which, he said, might be held on the same day with the presidential election on May 25.

“We are not against a referendum,” he said at the opening of a meeting of the Ukrainian parliament’s conciliatory commission, attended by government officials and parliamentary factions’ leaders. “I am certain that in the course of such a referendum, which the parliament might decide to declare, an overwhelming majority of Ukrainians would vote for one, unitary Ukraine."

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