We must make full use of the potential of the Association Agreement during the EU accession negotiations: Olha Stefanishyna
The priorities of cooperation between Ukraine and the European Union, set out in the format of the Association Council, allowed Ukraine to withstand, survive and make critical decisions at the beginning of a full-scale war. This was stated by Olha Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine, during a meeting of the Association Council held on Wednesday, 20 March, in Brussels, Belgium.
In her statement, the Deputy Prime Minister stressed the importance of full use of the Association Agreement's potential on the path to EU membership and noted the high dynamics of the implementation of the Association Agreement by Ukraine in 2023-2024.
"The priorities of our cooperation, identified before the start of the full-scale invasion and agreed in the format of the Association Council, allowed Ukraine to withstand, survive and make critical decisions at the beginning of the full-scale war - this includes the integration of energy markets, customs, trade, transport liberalisation and many other sectoral decisions that enabled, inter alia our temporarily displaced citizens in the EU to fully enjoy all the necessary rights," emphasised Olha Stefanishyna. "Today, when it comes to the start of the negotiation process, we must make full use of the potential of the Association Agreement to identify priorities for the adaptation of legislation and to identify priority measures for deeper integration into the EU Internal Market.
" We are currently implementing more than 90 recommendations identified in the Enlargement Report. First of all, we are focusing on the introduction of political recommendations, which are prerequisites for the start of the negotiation process. Thus, over the past year, we have promptly completed all the tasks related to the governance and rule of law pillars," the official said.
She informed the participants in detail about Ukraine's implementation of the 4 legislative steps defined together with approval by the European Council on 15 December 2023 of the decision to start the negotiation process. In particular, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has adopted the necessary amendments to the framework legislation on the rights of national minorities (communities), and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has ensured the adoption of all necessary bylaws. Legislative amendments were also adopted to strengthen the institutional capacity of Ukraine's anti-corruption bodies. Lastly, as part of a set of measures related to de-oligarchisation, a new framework legislation on fair lobbying was adopted.
Additional amendments to the legislation establishing liability for violations of lobbying legislation are expected to be approved by the Parliament soon.
"Following the European Council's decision on 15 December, we have launched a joint screening process with the European Commission that will last until the end of May," said Olha Stefanishyna.
She expressed special gratitude to the European Commission for its assistance in accelerating the review of certain chapters related to agriculture and transport policy in response to the request of the Ukrainian side.