The delegation of the Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the EU held important bilateral meetings and negotiations on the sidelines of the Conference of the Committees on European Affairs of the European Union Member States and on the European Integration of the Partner and Candidate Countries (COSAC). The Head of the Committee Ivanna Klympush-Tsyntsadze, her First Deputy Vadym Halaichuk and Committee member Dmytro Liubota met with representatives of national delegations participating in the COSAC meeting. They worked on the final version of the COSAC plenary outcome document and planned further joint work. “We also took advantage of our stay in Brussels to hold meetings with the European External Action Service, in particular with its Deputy Director General Luke Devine, with the Director of the Ukrainian Service at the Directorate-General for European Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations Anna Jarosz-Friis, as well as with individual MEPs from different political groups,” said Ivanna Klympush-Tsyntsadze.
According to her, during the talks at the European External Action Service, the issue of strengthening sanctions against russia was discussed, as well as the adoption of the next, 14th sanctions package against russia. “We insisted on the need to expand it in terms of exposing sanctions circumvention schemes, in particular by European companies, and on the need to introduce strict restrictions and bans in various areas and sectors, in particular on the import of russian agricultural goods to the EU,” said the Committee Chair. She added that the Committee's delegation insisted on the need to finalise legislation at the European level on criminal liability for violations of the sanctions regime. This legislation should be finalised, at least in the form of a directive that would coordinate the actions of national legislations and governments of EU member states.
The Directorate-General for European Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations discussed the priority next steps to approve the negotiation framework with Ukraine, and the actual opening of these negotiations. “About the systematic work that the European Commission has started to familiarise Ukrainian government officials and representatives of the executive branch with the upcoming process of the so-called screening – the compliance of Ukrainian legislation with EU law, as well as further steps to implement the Ukraine Plan, which was recently approved by the Government and according to which the European Union, within the framework of the Ukraine Facility, plans to provide assistance to Ukraine over the next four years.
According to her, representatives of the European Commission understand and communicate very clearly that the Verkhovna Rada should play a huge role in the implementation of the Ukraine Plan, which is complementary to Ukraine's European integration efforts. This requires a real willingness to have a deep and meaningful discussion at the level of the Verkhovna Rada and an understanding of the priorities laid down in the Ukraine Plan and agreed between the European Commission and the Government of Ukraine. “We have already planned a special meeting in our Committee to plan further work in accordance with the Ukraine Action Plan in cooperation with the Government. And we invite representatives of sectoral committees to attend. We have agreed that representatives of the European Commission will also be ready to take part in this meeting to explain in detail to a wider range of parliamentarians the relevant tasks and commitments undertaken by Ukraine under the Ukraine facility financial mechanism to support Ukraine,” said the Chair of the Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the EU.