Denys Shmyhal: Our priority is to move on to the EU membership negotiation process
Ukraine is actively working to ensure the implementation of the Association Agreement, while the priorities of the Government's work are the continuation of gradual integration into the internal market, energy, digital, and payment environments of the EU. Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal emphasized this during the 8th plenary meeting of the Ukraine-EU Association Council in the course of the discussion of bilateral cooperation.
"The Government, together with all branches of power, under the political leadership of the President of Ukraine, is working on the implementation of EU recommendations. After Ukraine has received the candidate status and implemented the 7 EU recommendations, our key priority is to move on to the negotiation process regarding our membership," the Head of Government emphasized.
The Prime Minister accentuated that Ukraine appreciates the European Union's support for the Ukrainian energy sector, and thanked for initiating the creation of the Ukraine Energy Support Fund on the basis of the Energy Community: "Our State counts on a significant increase in the volume of electricity exports from Ukraine and further support from the European Commission in communication with ENTSO-E".
According to the Prime Minister, the dialogue regarding cooperation with the EU in the field of renewable energy has also been intensified against the background of reducing Europe's dependence on russian energy resources.
Ukraine's new status as a candidate for EU membership also facilitates the process of joining the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). Denys Shmyhal emphasized that the National Bank of Ukraine is already cooperating with the European Payments Council in terms of the coordination of the procedure for joining SEPA and the technical aspects of integration with its participants: "This will provide new opportunities for the Ukrainian economy."
Among the priority goals are also obtaining the regime of the internal market with the EU in the digital sector and accelerated integration into the Single Digital Market.
"We continue vigorous activities to draft a joint cooperation plan in the field of electronic trust services, which is aimed at ensuring mutual recognition of trust services between Ukraine and the EU. Another important direction of our cooperation is work on the interoperability of Ukrainian digital documents with European ones," said Denys Shmyhal.
It is also essential to create a single space for international roaming between Ukraine and the EU and for Ukraine to join in the EU policy ‘roam like at home. The Prime Minister emphasized that the goal of our country is to start a substantive dialogue regarding joining the EU roaming policy as soon as possible. According to him, this is one of the key steps for Ukraine in the status of a candidate country on the way to integration into the EU's Single Digital Market.
