On December 7, a Parliamentary Association Committee meeting attended
by Ukrainian MPs, the Deputy Prime Minister for European and
Euro-Atlantic Integration and European parliamentarians took place.
The participants discussed relations between Ukraine and the EU, in
particular, their parliamentary dimension, Ukraine's implementation of
the Association Agreement with the European Union and reform
priorities. Also the situation in Crimea and Donbas, as well as events
in Belarus was on the agenda.
PAC co-chair Vadym Halaychuk noted the importance of the Ukraine-EU
summit, which took place in October. Ukraine received approval from
European partners for its intentions to fully integrate into the EU —
Vadym Halaychuk said. He also noted that next year Ukraine would use
all opportunities to renew the trade part of the Association Agreement
with the EU. The PAC co-chair informed that the deputies were preparing
a number of important draft laws to be adopted in 2021. These laws,
according to Halaychuk, will significantly help Ukraine to fulfil its
obligations under the Association Agreement.
Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha
Stefanishyna provided a brief overview on Ukraine’s progress in
implementing the Association Agreement. She stated that the Government
and the Parliament were intensifying their efforts on Ukraine’s joining
to the ACAA agreement — the so-called «industrial visa-free regime»
with the EU. Olha Stefanishyna stated that despite the challenges, the
Verkhovna Rada had been able to pass important laws aimed at
implementing the Association Agreement. These include laws amending the
Customs Code and the law on inland waterway transport.
Ukraine's progress in implementing some reforms was also noted by Luke
Devin, Executive Director of the European External Action Service for
Europe and Central Asia. He stated that Ukraine had successfully coped
with decentralization and launched land reforms. However, Luke Devin
also stressed the negative trends observed by the EU in Ukraine. This
is, in particular, the decision of the Constitutional Court to abolish
criminal liability for false declarations. According to Mr. Devin, the
judiciary remains an extremely important area for reform in Ukraine. He
stressed that the EU called on the Government of Ukraine and the
Verkhovna Rada to promptly restore anti-corruption legislation. Also,
according to Mr. Devin, there are still many challenges in Ukraine
related to the fight against corruption. This includes, in particular,
a € 4.6 billion fraud lawsuit in the PrivatBank case. Luke Devin stated
that the EU would further support Ukraine on the path of reforms.
Kateryna Maternova, Deputy Director General for Neighbourhood Policy
and EU Enlargement, who heads the European Task Force to support
Ukraine in implementing structural reforms, also reminded about the
need to restore anti-corruption legislation in the structure of general
reform of the justice system in Ukraine. According to Ms. Maternova,
this would make Ukraine stronger against both external and internal
threats.
Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, Chair of the Committee on Ukraine's
Integration into the EU, said that despite some positive changes,
including legislative ones, in the implementation of the Agreement, the
pace of its implementation had slowed down over the past year. In 2020,
Ukraine fulfilled the Agreement by only about 30%. “We are concerned
that the reform of the judiciary is stuck, the decisions of the
Constitutional Court have hit the anti-corruption bodies. Now a lot
needs to be done to ensure the independence of our basic institutions,
such as the National Bank or the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine”, —
Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze said. The Chair of the Committee also
expressed concern about the reform of public administration, as,
according to her, this destroyed reform should help to carry out all
the transformations necessary for the implementation of the Association
Agreement. Now it has to be restored from the ashes. The Chair of the
Committee also drew the attention of MEPs to the political persecution
of the opposition, volunteers, veterans and to the abuse of law
enforcement agencies against political opponents. “We are seriously
concerned of actions against opposition TV channels, which transmit a
point of view that does not necessarily agree with the main party line
in Ukraine. We see that law enforcement agencies are attacking such
media channels as Espresso, Pryamyj or even Suspilne TV, and this has
been documented by independent media associations”, — Ivanna
Klympush-Tsintsadze stated.
At the PAC meeting, the parties also discussed the political situation
in Belarus. Luke Devin said the EU was reviewing relations with the
country. According to Luke Devin, the European Union is reducing
cooperation with the Belarusian authorities as much as possible, but
will maintain it where it is needed, in particular, in matters that
affect the lives of the Belarusian people.
During the meeting, the Ukrainian side also informed the MEPs about the
numerous violations by the occupiers of the “silence” regime in the
Donbas, as well as about Russia's violations of human rights in Crimea
and the militarization of the peninsula. The People's Deputy Rustam
Umerov informed the participants of the dialogue about the plans of the
newly created inter-factional deputy association “Crimean Platform”.
Its purpose, according to Umerov, is to create an international
platform for the deoccupation of Crimea. This format, Mr. Umerov said,
covers several levels: the first level — political, which will be
joined by the heads of foreign states and governments; second one —
heads of foreign ministries and defence ministers; the third is the
inter-parliamentary level, and the fourth is the level of experts and
civil society. The first summit of the “Crimean platform” may take
place next year.
According to Deputy Prime Minister Olga Stefanishina, the offline
meeting of the Association Council will take place in early February.