Michael Voegele, Head of the Operation Section "Democratic Government of the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine", Christoph Saurenbach, Coordinator of the Customs and Security Section of the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine; Jolanta Taczynska, UEPLAC Team Leader; Robert Khorolskyy, UEPLAC Expert; Ihor Tymofiev, Deputy Head of the Customs Service of Ukraine; Leonid Kozachenko, Head of the Council of Entrepreneurs under the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, took part in the meeting.
Vitalii Khomutynnik thanked the foreign guests for the participation in the meeting and their serious intentions to establish connections between the subject parliamentary committee and delegations of the European customs bodies to Ukraine.
The Parties discussed preparation of a new version of the Customs Code of Ukraine with account for the customs laws of the European Union, agreements of the World Trade Organization, international conventions, and framework standards for the provision of security and alleviation of world trade, adopted by the World Customs Organization.
The Parties dwelled on the cooperation between the Committee on Taxation and Customs Policy, the State Customs Service of Ukraine, the Council of Entrepreneurs under the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the European experts to enhance the laws on the customs procedures, customs legislation, exchange of the information between the customs agencies of the countries and further collaboration.
Michael Voegele supported the intention of the Ukrainian party to draft the Customs Code to consider the interests of both supervisory bodies and the business entities. He assured that the European institutions would render technical and consultative support to Ukraine.
Vitalii Khomutynnik called for engaging foreign experts to draft the Customs Code of Ukraine. "We would like to adopt the version of the Customs Code to meet the European standards, which would become the first step towards the customs reform in our state," the Committee Chairman stated.
The Parties agreed to foster cooperation.