Patriarch Bartholomew and President Petro Poroshenko
The presidential administration responded to the final rejection on the journalists ‘ request to provide a copy of the cooperation agreement between Ukraine and Fanara.
Officials of the presidential Administration reported “Ukrainian news” that the agreement will be made public “after a final decision”, which is a violation of the law.
On 12 November the AP said that can’t promptly provide a copy of the contract and reported the postponement of the request processing up to 20 working days, and then finally refused to provide the text of the agreement.
“According to the decision, the disclosure of all documents related to obtaining by Ukraine of the decision of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church, including the requested agreement will be made public after a final decision”, – stated in the AP response to a request for information.
Journalists write: “in Order to hide from the public the provisions signed on 3 November of a cooperation agreement with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the presidential Administration of Ukraine went on to direct violation of the Law of Ukraine “On access to public information””.
As explained, signed by the President on behalf of Ukraine, international treaties of the a priori are public documents. According to the norms of article 6 of the law of Ukraine “On access to public information”, access to content can be restricted completely or partially only in two cases – when they contained information classified as “secret” or “service”.
In this case, the classify information as “secret” or “service” is regulated by special laws and provides for a special procedure, clearly described in the legislation.
As reported by ALS, 3 November 2018 “Agreement on cooperation and interaction between Ukraine and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople” the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew signed at the meeting in Istanbul on 3 November. The press service of the President reported that the agreement on cooperation between Ukraine and Constantinople is an agreement on the establishment of an independent Ukrainian Church. November 4, “Ukrainski Novyny” appealed to the AP with a request to provide a copy of the signed document and was refused.
