The Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the EU met with parliamentarians from the Netherlands. The delegation included MPs representing the Committees on Foreign Affairs and European Relations of the Netherlands.
The Committee members thanked their Dutch colleagues for their military, humanitarian and financial support. They also thanked them for coming to Ukraine in person. “We are very grateful that you support Ukraine at home, but also find time to come to us personally. This is very important because you can see what is happening here and how the situation in Ukraine is changing,” said Ivanna Klympush-Tsyntsadze, the Chair of the Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the EU.
She noted that Ukraine looks forward to continued and increased assistance from the Netherlands, especially given the delay in US support for Ukraine. She stressed that Ukraine urgently needs additional air defence capabilities, as Russia has been shelling Ukrainian cities and villages with great intensity in recent weeks, killing civilians and destroying energy infrastructure. And it is air defences that can stop Russian aircraft from moving deeper into Ukrainian territory. At the same time, despite the daily struggle for survival, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze said, Ukraine continues to work and implement the necessary transformations on the path to European integration. The Committee Chair stressed that Ukraine has been building its progress towards the EU not over the past two years, but over the past 10 years, since the conclusion of the Association Agreement with the EU. She also believes that it is important that the European Union closely monitors Ukraine's progress in doing its homework required to join the EU. “This magnifying glass that Ukraine is now under will help us to do our job better, the first time, so that we don't have to redo it,” said Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze. She also added that it is important that Ukraine and other candidate countries do not become hostages to internal reforms in the European Union. And that the process of their accession should be parallel to, and not dependent on, the process of internal reforms in the EU.
The First Deputy Chairman of the Committee, Vadym Halaichuk, informed the Dutch delegation about the steps that Ukraine has to take in the process of European integration. He also expressed hope that the accession process will be slightly modified and will take place in stages. This implies, in particular, that candidate states would receive certain benefits from accession not after completing the entire set of tasks, but after each stage.
Vadym Nalyvaichenko, the Secretary of the Committee, thanked the Netherlands for hosting the ministerial conference “Restoring Justice for Ukraine” in The Hague.
He is convinced that this will help experts working to bring russia to justice.
For the Dutch parliamentary delegation, as it arrived in Ukraine, it was the first visit abroad. Last November, the Netherlands held parliamentary elections. And the MPs decided that Ukraine was the country they wanted to visit first. The members of the delegation assured us that there is broad support for Ukraine in their parliament and a willingness to increase assistance to Ukraine, in particular through support for the F-16 coalition and the supply of air defence equipment to Ukraine.