Statement by YABLOKO Bureau, 15.02.2016

The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO welcomes the proposal of Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) in the European Parliament, on recognition of the Russian language as an official language of the European Union. We consider this idea as the recognition of the importance of the Russian language for the world and the European culture in particular; the status of the Russian language as a world language; as well as its special role as the bridge language in Eastern Europe and all the post-Soviet space.

For many years the following proposal has been part of YABLOKO’s line towards the integration of Russia into the European community. The realisation of this proposal will make it possible for the Russian citizens to see how the citizens of the European Union actually live, without any distortion on behalf of the Russian media, and will allow them to learn how the citizens and institutions of the EU overcome difficulties. The chance to get to know all the official documents of the European Union in the Russian language will become an ongoing “window on Europe” for the Russians having both educational and immediate political significance. The official status of the Russian language in the EU will inevitably demolish the propagandistic myths and the foreign enemy image embarked by the Russian authorities, it will become a step towards the recovering of the links between the European Union and the Russian Federation which were torned by President Putin and his Administration, it will hamper the attempts of the false tearing Russia away from the European civilisation, and our country has always been an essential and important part of it. This will also open the new possibilities for the development of public diplomacy and the pan-European dialogue.

The mere fact that these were the European liberals who proposed it shows the Russian citizens that for the ALDE representatives Russia, it’s culture and the Russian language are not at all equivalent to the authoritarian regime and anti-European course of President Vladimir Putin.

The YABLOKO party considers this initiative as a free will of the European colleagues, an attempt to switch from confrontation and conflict to a dialogue, cooperation, creation and community within all the territory of the European continent. Such attempts are of prime importance at this very moment, during the Russia-Ukraine conflict and a serious relationship crisis between the Russian Federation and the European Union. Following the example of the Founding Fathers of the European Union, who started the integration processes almost immediately after the World War II, now we, as responsible politicians of modern Europe, must jointly design and build a bridge to the common peaceful future and extend it over today’s gaping chasm of misunderstanding, mistrust, estrangement and hostility.

The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO supports the proposal on the official status of the Russian language in the EU and together with the colleagues from other European liberal and green parties intends to develop and introduce new initiatives aimed at the joint movement of the European countries and interstate unions in the continent towards the creation of Greater Europe – economic, educational and cultural space where visas will be cancelled and a pan-European system of collective security will be founded.

Emilia Slabunova,
YABLOKO Chairperson