Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine

Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, Chair of the Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the EU, took part in a meeting of the interdepartmental working group on coordination of climate change in the framework of the European Commission's European Green Deal initiative.

Almost a year ago, at a meeting of the EU-Ukraine Association Council, our country and the European Union agreed to develop cooperation taking into account the European Green Deal, which provides for the transformation of Europe into a climate-neutral continent by 2050. The parties agreed to cooperate on decarbonisation and environmental protection, and stressed the need to develop strategies to implement them under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. These issues were further discussed during the Ukraine-EU Summit in October 2020, as one of the priority areas of cooperation.

Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze noted that a huge number of very ambitious goals and separate strategies of the ministries had been announced, but a single coordinated strategy in this direction had not been developed yet. “Today we hear great ideas and strategies of various ministries, but so far there is no clear common position of the Cabinet of Ministers”, - she said.
The Chairman of the Committee noted that in order for all these ambitious goals to be realized, in particular, on climate neutrality by 2050, coordinated action of both different ministries and the Government was needed. “I hope that a common, unified position of the ministries will be worked out, and this will be translated into the position of the Government and will give us an opportunity to conduct a substantive dialogue of the Verkhovna Rada and government officials. As the Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the EU, we will be ready to become an additional platform for agreeing positions in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine”, - Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze said.

She also called for maximum consideration and use of the potential of MPs to interact with European countries and the European Parliament, which plays a major role in shaping the European Green Deal and has repeatedly helped to prioritize issues important to Ukraine on the European Union agenda.

Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze also reminded of the need to use existing European integration instruments, in particular, the updated Annex XXVII to the Association Agreement, which requires coordination of actions with the EU in the energy sector. “The application of this Annex should become a litmus test of how we can really use the existing tools of European integration. And updating of the Agreement in 2021 makes it possible to take into account our goals and ambitions for the European Green Deal and implement them in cooperation between government officials and parliamentarians, as well as in our joint dialogue with European partners”, — the Committee chairwoman concluded.