Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine

Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze - Chair of the Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the EU and Maria Mezentseva, Deputy Chair of the Committee, took part in an online discussion “Six Years of Implementation of the Association Agreement: How to Make Ukraine a Part of EU Enlargement Policy?”. During the event, the UCEP report “Ukraine and the Association Agreement: Monitoring the implementation of 2014 — the first half of 2021” was presented.

According to the report, the areas that demonstrate the greatest progress in the implementation of the Association Agreement are the area of technical barriers to trade (100% implementation), as well as public procurement, foreign, defence and security policy. The average progress is demonstrated by the statistics, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and intellectual property areas. Outsiders in the implementation of the Association Agreement are public health, transport, business start-ups, postal and courier services, financial cooperation and the fight against fraud. An absolute outsider is the education, where there have been attempts to “roll back” the reforms.

The Chair of the Committee noted that analyzing the progress of the AA with the European Union, it is important to identify those areas where there are setbacks. “Unfortunately, in different sectors we have a step forward and two steps back today”, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze said. According to her, such a situation now exists, in particular, in the civil service area and in the area of the rule of law.

The Chair of the Committee reminded of the importance of institutional capacity for the success of Ukraine's European integration: “There is a huge number of people in European integration whose work is not visible. These are experts who are deeply versed in the processes within the country, understand the EU directives and regulations and can offer systemic solutions. But the number of such specialists, due to constant disturbances in the civil service, is decreasing, in particular, in the Government Office”. Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze noted that instead of building its capacity, the Government Office for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration had faced staff reductions.

Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze is convinced that Ukraine has underutilized the potential for successful implementation of many European integration tasks over the past two years. At the same time, she welcomed the unity of the Ukrainian Parliament during the adoption of the law on inland waterway transport: “We have a field for cooperation, a field for opportunities to realize constitutional goals”.

Maria Mezentseva, Deputy Chair of the Committee, believes that Ukraine is making good progress in implementing the Association Agreement and deserves the status of a candidate for the EU membership: “Compared to the largest wave of the EU accession in 2004, Croatia's accession in 2013 and those that are already candidate countries, I think Ukraine has done much more to claim candidate status. Our common policy must be bolder”.

The Chair of the Committee also noted that it was very important for Ukraine to have the opportunity to revise the Association Agreement. “I hope Ukraine will be able to revise quotas, change duties and so on. At the same time, I lack Ukraine's ambition for the European perspective, as well as for expanding and deepening the political part of the Association Agreement. It is the political part of the Agreement and its implementation that gives us the opportunity to get closer to European values not only in our dreams, but also in real life”, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze stressed.