Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine

At its meeting on June 16, the Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the EU considered the Concept of the Draft Law on European Integration. Experts from the European Union's Association4U project have been working on this document for several months. Adoption of the draft law on European integration would create a legal framework for more effective implementation of the obligations under the Association Agreement and would promote Ukraine s faster integration into the EU.

Association4U Team Leader Egle Rimkute noted that the Concept had been created on the initiative of members of the Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the EU, headed by Dmytro Lyubota. “We have gathered a large team of experts on European integration - Ukrainian and international, who for several months worked hard, putting together ideas on the possible law on European integration. University representatives were also involved. We have developed the first proposals of the concept. It will need further discussion”, - Egle Rimkute said.

Cesar Herma, a key expert of the Association4U project, informed about the main directions of the Concept. According to him, the future draft law on European integration should set the legal framework and politically strengthen the cooperation of state institutions in Ukraine in the process of European integration. The concept proposes to institutionalize mechanisms of political cooperation, especially between the Cabinet of Ministers and the Verkhovna Rada. “The most important novelty of the Concept is the so-called annual cycle of the European integration course, which should structure a strategic discussion between the Cabinet of Ministers and the Verkhovna Rada once a year, especially with the participation of the Committee on Ukraine's integration into the EU, where the Cabinet of Ministers and the Verkhovna Rada would exchange assessments and priority areas of the European integration course”, - Cesar Herma said. The key expert of the project also noted that an important part of the Concept is the compliance of draft laws with the requirements of the EU law. Both the Verkhovna Rada and the Cabinet of Ministers already have set responsibilities and procedures in this direction, but they are not synchronized. The concept proposes to introduce rules and procedures that should improve the assessment of compliance of draft laws with the European Union law.

The Chair of the Committee thanked the Association4U project for its cooperation and work on the Concept of the future draft law on European integration. “I believe there are a lot of proposals for elaborating a comprehensive solution of the problem that we constantly face, and because of which the legislation approximation is very often fragmentary at the moment. You suggested the ways to improve it.”, - Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze said. The Secretary of the Committee Valentyn Nalyvaichenko reminded that the members of the Committee had already prepared a draft Concept of the Committee's work, which provided for strengthening the coordination, control and other functions of the Committee on Ukraine's integration into the EU. Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze noted that some of these developments had been used in the Association4U Concept proposed by the project and called on the Committee members and project experts to continue working together to move from the Concept to a draft law on the European integration.