KYIV. Sept 20 (Interfax) - Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko has voiced the wording of the latest edition of the Steinmeier formula concerning legislation on special status of Donbas, which is currently being agreed upon within the Trilateral Contact Group for settling the conflict in southeastern Ukraine.
Prystaiko said in an interview published in the online publication European Pravda that the latest version of the Steinmeier formula sounds as follows: "The legislation shall take effect at 8:00 p.m. local time on the day of the voting in early local elections in certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, called and held in line with the Ukrainian Constitution and a special law of Ukraine regulating the holding of local elections in the abovementioned districts."
"It [the legislation] shall be in effect on a provisional basis until the day the OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission publishes its final conclusions, based on the OSCE/ODIHR's established practice, on general compliance of the early local elections with the OSCE standards and international standards of democratic elections, as well as with Ukrainian law, and which provide an answer to a question agreed upon in the Normandy format, approved within the Trilateral Contact Group and forwarded by Ukraine in its invitation and by the OSCE chairperson-in-office to the ODIHR director," Prystaiko said.
"This legislation shall continue to be in effect on a permanent basis in the case that the OSCE/ODIHR comes to the conclusion in its final report, in line with the established practice, that the early local elections in certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions were conducted generally in compliance with the OSCE standards and Ukrainian law, answering a question agreed upon in the Normandy format, approved within the Trilateral Contact Group and forwarded by Ukraine in its invitation and by the OSCE chairperson-in-office to the ODIHR director," he said in citing the latest edition of the Steinmeier formula.
The Steinmeier formula is named after incumbent German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the former German foreign minister. It envisions that, before elections are held in Donetsk and Luhansk, their special status would be applied provisionally and would assume full legal effect only after elections and the publication of a final report by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) attesting that these elections were held in line with democratic principles.
Prystaiko said in the same interview cited earlier on Friday that a meeting between the leaders of the countries involved in the Normandy-format talks on Donbas (France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine) could take place on the condition that the Trilateral Contact Group agreed upon the Steinmeier formula rendered in writing.
Asked whether Ukraine agrees to receive the text of the Steinmeier formula in writing before a Normandy-format summit, Prystaiko said, "Yes, this is one of the two preconditions for a meeting between the leaders on which we agreed. The second precondition is that we expect disengagement in three pilot areas [in Donbas] to be completed. Then the Russians added the third precondition, which sounds like 'the development of clear wordings for a statement by the leaders'."
The Trilateral Contact Group failed to agree upon the terms and conditions of elections in the Donbas areas not controlled by Kyiv in written form due to a technical misunderstanding at its session in Minsk on September 18, he said. "While meeting in Minsk on Wednesday, the Trilateral Contact Group did follow a directive by the Normandy Four on agreeing upon the text of this formula in writing. They were actually supposed to do that, but some technical misunderstanding arose within the Trilateral Contact Group itself. Plus, the Ukrainian representative made some suggestions, which I believe will be processed later," Prystaiko said.
He said he could not rule out that the text being discussed in Minsk may be adjusted. "It's for the Contact Group to decide what it's going to turn into - whether it remains unchanged or whether something should be added to it," Prystaiko said.
Ukraine agreed to wordings discussed between the advisors to the Normandy-format leaders, he said. "In September 2019, advisors to the Normandy-format leaders agreed upon not the Steinmeier formula but another clear wording. It also says that the legislation on special status shall be applied on a temporary basis, starting from the moment elections are held, and shall be applied on a permanent basis after the OSCE/ODIHR recognizes the elections as meeting high standards," Prystaiko said.
The general wording on which the agreements have been reached "has prompted a great deal of interpretations," which is happening, in particular, at the negotiations in Minsk, he said.
"But now this is not a task for the Normandy Four and not for the foreign ministries - this task has been assigned to the Trilateral Contact Group. Once they reword it more precisely, we'll then receive it and see what happened to our proposal and whether we can propose this to our leaders before they meet," Prystaiko said.