Borys Ivanovych Tarasyuk is a Ukrainian politician who twice served as the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and a former MP who is since December 2019 Ukraine's permanent representative to the Council of Europe. Tarasyuk studied international relations and international law at National Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv, and graduated in 1975. Besides Ukrainian, he is fluent in English, French and Russian. As of 2012, Tarasyuk is a sitting member of the International Honorary Council of the European Academy of Diplomacy.
Career as foreign minister
Tarasyuk served as deputy of foreign minister from 9 March 1992 until 16 September 1995. In 1995 – 1998 he was ambassador in Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Ukraine representative in NATO. He became foreign minister for the first time from 17 April 1998 until 29 September 2000. He later broke with President Leonid Kuchma, and became a foreign relations adviser to Viktor Yushchenko, the main opposition candidate in the 2004 presidential elections. After Ukraine's Orange Revolution, Tarasyuk became foreign minister again on 4 February 2005, and served in the Cabinets of Yulia Tymoshenko, Yuriy Yekhanurov, and Viktor Yanukovych. Tarasyuk favors Ukrainian integration with the European Union. Tarasyuk was formally dismissed by the Verkhovna Rada on 1 December 2006. He disputed this dismissal in Kyiv Shevchenkivskyi District court, and on 5 December parliament's decision was reversed on the grounds that it violated Ukrainian law. On the same day, Yushchenko issued a decree that Tarasyuk must keep his job. Despite this court order and presidential decree, he was not allowed to enter cabinet meetings and this caused political conflict based on interpretations of amendments to Constitution. On 30 January 2007 Tarasyuk announced his resignation. In 2009, he served as the Chairman of the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada on issues of European integration.
Borys Tarasyuk is the founder of the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation, a political action committee established to campaign for NATO- and European Union memberships in Ukraine. The group is funded by Western donations and is open about its goals. The IEAC' logo juxtaposes the flag of Ukraine with the logos of NATO and the European Union. Polls cited by Tarasyuk showed that only between 18% and 22% of Ukraine's population supported NATO-membership in 2007. The percentage has increased to 47% by 2014. The Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation has influenced Ukraine state policy in the past. For example, a report produced by the Institute titled recommended changes to the customs regime relating to Transnistria. Less than five weeks after the report's publication, the recommendations were implement and signed into law. Ukraine-Transnistria border customs conflict followed on 3 March 2006. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the European Union, and the United States backed the legislation, while Russia opposed it.
