Reps of Authorities Show Interest in Cooperation with Council of Churches

Issues regarding cooperation with the authorities were discussed at the meeting of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (AUCCRO) on April 11, the Institute for Religious Freedom (IRF) reported.

Head of the interfactional association of deputies For the Promotion of Freedom of Conscience,”Hanna Herman (representing the Party of Regions) and Representatives of Ukraine’s President in the Parliament, Yurii Miroshnychenko, stated that they were open to cooperation with the AUCCRO in the law creating area. 

Deputy head of the Ministry of Culture, Viktor Baliurko, stressed in his report that the Ministry of Culture is also interested in the cooperation with rhe AUCCRO to settle pressing questions of religious life. 

The meeting was also attended by officials of the Presidential Administration and Department on Matters of Religions and Nationalities of the Ministry of Culture whose Director, Lubchyk, presented a report on the religious situation in Ukraine.

The representatives of the authorities named the problems which can be settled in the near future, in particular, the granting of religious organizations the right to establish educational institutions of state standard, the prevention the imposition of new housing tax on religious organizations, the restitution of religious buildings which are not part of interdenominational disputes. 

The deputies also expressed readiness to initiate a moratorium on the privatization of the immovable property which was confiscated by the Soviet regime and is to be returned to religious organizations according to Ukraine’s obligations to the Council of Europe.

The participants also discussed the problems of the ill-famed alterations to the Law of Ukraine on Freedom of Conscience stipulated by Bill 10221. It is expected that a bill developed by the Ministries of Justice and Culture to restore the previous wording of the law will be made public in the near future.