Secretary General of the European Parliament: ‘Our future depends on you and the results of this war’

The Chair of the Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the EU Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze met with the Secretary General of the European Parliament Klaus Welle.

Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze noted that it is extremely important for Ukraine to fulfil the requirements that will allow to move to the next stage of European integration — the start of negotiations on EU membership: ‘Some of these conditions require additional interpretation of what exactly the European Union meant, how we understand it and intend to implement’. The Chair of the Committee is convinced that all the details and nuances of these requirements are important, so it would be useful to receive feedback from the European side with a detailed explanation on these seven points.

Also, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze noted that increasing institutional capacity is important on the path of Ukraine's European integration: ‘We are very interested in building the institutional capacity of the Verkhovna Rada. In the Committee, we are convinced that it is necessary to strengthen the secretariat — to increase the number of people who will carry out the examination of the draft laws regarding their compliance with EU law’. Currently, according to the Chair, only 11 people work in the secretariat of the Committee, 8 of whom are involved in the examination of draft laws. This, in her opinion, is extremely insufficient, because the Committee must prepare conclusions for draft laws both before the first and second readings in the Parliament. Therefore, increasing the staff of the secretariat is crucial at this stage. The Chair of the Committee is sure that the help of donors in this process through technical assistance projects does matter and is very important, but Ukraine should ensure building the institutional capacity at the level of civil servants.

Klaus Welle informed that the European Parliament fully supports Ukraine in the fight against Russian aggression: ‘We understand that our future depends on you and the results of this war’. He also noted that the European Parliament supports Ukraine not only politically, but also with technical assistance and equipment.

Klaus Welle also reported that the European Parliament has great capacities in official translations, in particular in translations of legislative terminology. He believes that it is important for Ukraine to implement the practices of European terminology. The Chair of the Committee is convinced that this direction of cooperation would be very useful, because now the issue of providing official translations and tables of compliance with the EU law for all draft laws submitted to the Committee is pressing.

Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze also emphasized the need to use the tool of the Parliamentary Association Committee for interaction between the Verkhovna Rada and the European Parliament, in particular, to intensify cooperation at the level of sectoral committees. Horizontal cooperation between the European Parliament and Verkhovna Rada committees, in her opinion, could significantly improve the process of European integration.