The Chairperson of the Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the EU Ivanna Klympush-Tsyntsadze took part in a public discussion ‘Ukraine's accession to the EU: how to move effectively and quickly’. The discussion was organised on the occasion of the visit of high-level European integration advisers to Ukraine.
Ivanna Klympush-Tsyntsadze noted that for Ukraine, European integration is not only a strategic goal enshrined in the Constitution, but also a social aspiration, the commitment of the Ukrainian people to the values of freedom, democracy and the desire to build a country based on the rule of law and fundamental human values.
The Chair of the Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the EU noted that all political advances, against the backdrop of russia's war against Ukraine, against the backdrop of the work that has been done over the past ten years since the Revolution of Dignity, Ukraine has already received these advances from the European Union. “Now political advances will no longer be the basis for moving forward. This will be our hard work, and this hard work includes communication with society,” said Ivanna Klympush-Tsyntsadze.
She stressed that European integration work, its communication to the public, and the possibility of engaging a wider range of participants in the discussion, including on the parliamentary platform, are becoming more complicated amid martial law.
At the moment, according to the Committee's chairman, Ukraine has to cope with several challenges. First of all, despite the martial law, it is necessary to restore the balance of power and relations between state institutions. Institutional capacity needs to be increased at all levels of government: ‘Without the civil service at the level of the government, ministries, parliament and committees, we will not be able to break through in all these tasks.’ And also to develop a new type of procedural interaction between the parliament and the government so that all outdated things are updated in line with the new tasks. ‘This also means an honest and very serious internal dialogue in the parliament and the involvement of all parliamentary forces in this dialogue, in the development of decisions and in obtaining a common result,’ said the Committee Chair.
Ivanna Klympush-Tsyntsadze stressed the importance of honest communication with society in the process of European integration. ‘We should not create high expectations from the process. We should not promise that within two years we will be fully ready for membership in the European Union... Public support will fluctuate if we do not ensure a constant, multi-layered dialogue and explanatory work at all levels,’ the Committee Chair said. She insisted that it is also necessary to maintain the trust of European partners: “We need to move from ambitions, slogans and expectations to results. This will allow us to maintain the trust of our partners and at the same time convert this trust into a further proactive position of the European Union to ensure that Ukraine advances and is integrated at various levels – civil society, cultural space, human interaction, parliamentary and governmental contacts, and into European processes.” According to the Committee's chairman, Ukraine's integration into the EU is a common interest of both the Ukrainian state and society and the European Union: “I want Ukraine to succeed, and I want the EU to become a more powerful geopolitical and economic player in the world together with Ukraine.”