People´s Deputies of Ukraine, members
of the European Parliament, and the Representative Office of the
European Union in Ukraine
attended the meeting.
Borys Tarasiuk, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on the European Integration, and Paweł Kowal, member of the European Parliament (the Republic of Poland), co-chair the Committee on the Parliamentary Liaison.
Participants of the first and second working sessions of the 15th Meeting of the Committee on Parliamentary Liaison between Ukraine and the European Union, held in Kyiv on 4 November 2010, ratified the agenda of the 15th Meeting of the Committee on Parliamentary Liaison held in Brussels in March 2010, discussed the relations between Ukraine and the European Union on the eve of Ukraine-EU summit in Brussels in November 2010, debated the Agreement on Association and the formation of a free trade zone, implementation of Ukraine-EU agenda, and the issue of the Eastern Partnership and EURONEST.
The attendants discussed development of affairs in Ukraine and the EU, cooperation in the judicial branch, readmission and the prospects of a visa-free regime, ratification of the Common Report of the working group of the Committee on the Parliamentary Liaison on visa policy between Ukraine and the EU.
The participants focused on the economic and sectorial cooperation between Ukraine and the EU, implementation of the Final Act and Recommendations of the 14th meeting of the Committee on the Parliamentary Liaison, adoption of the Final Act and Recommendations of the 15th meeting.
Mykola Tomenko, Deputy Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, highly appreciated support of the European Parliament in the key issues of Ukraine-EU relations. "The supreme legislative body of the European Union has apparently the most balanced stance on the Ukraine´s integration to the EU," he stated.
According to M.Tomenko, "Ukraine and the EU are undergoing the essential stage in the development of bilateral relations, which is reflected in the intensive search of the mutually profitable ways to strengthen the cooperation via the Agreement on Association. An integral part of the Agreement is the provision on the formation of a free trade zone between Ukraine and the EU".
The Deputy Chairman attached
great importance to the visa free regime between Ukraine
and the EU, and focused on the fact that the European Parliament supported the
intentions of Ukraine
to alleviate the visa regime.
The participants of the meeting adopted the Final Act and the Recommendations in compliance with Clause 90 of the Agreement on Partnership and Cooperation.
According to the draft Final Act and the Recommendations on the Relations between Ukraine and the EU, the Committee on the Parliamentary Liaison call for strengthening cooperation between Ukraine and the EU in the trade-economic sector as an indispensable part of the forthcoming Agreement on Association. It calls on the Parties to establish close cooperation on the free trade zone.
The Committee on the Parliamentary Liaison recommends Ukraine to improve the economic, social and territorial connections in the policy of regional development due to the EU standards to overcome disparity in the level of development of different regions. The Committee calls on the EU with a request to assist Ukraine in the implementation of the economic development projects.
As to the cooperation, the Committee on the Parliamentary Liaison takes into account the advancement within the Eastern Partnership and the European Neighbourhood Policy; welcomes the fact that the Ukrainian Parliament supports establishment of the EURONEST Parliamentary Assembly to monitor the activity and the development of the Eastern Partnership; re-states the importance of strengthening cooperation between Ukraine and the EU in foreign policy and security; and lays emphasis on the close regional cooperation.
Offsite meeting of the 15th Meeting of the Committee on Parliamentary Liaison will be held in Odesa on 5 November 2010. The topics of the meeting include: regional development projects in Odesa region (cooperation with the European Union); trans-frontier cooperation with Romania and Moldova; international cooperation in the Danube basin (problems and prospects).