The fourth round of bilateral meetings between the EU and Ukraine took place in Brussels on 19-22 November as part of the screening of Ukrainian legislation for conformity with EU law. This is an assessment process that is a necessary step in the EU accession negotiations. The Ukrainian delegation at the meetings is led by Olha Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and Minister of Justice of Ukraine.

The current screening session was devoted to the freedoms of movement of workers, capital, entrepreneurship and services – part of the second cluster, Internal Market. The Ministry of Economy was represented in Brussels by Oleksii Sobolev, First Deputy Minister and head of the delegation for the chapter “Right of establishment and freedom to provide services”, and Tetiana Berezhna, Deputy Minister and head of the delegation for the chapter “Freedom of Movement for Workers”.

“We have presented to our partners from the European Commission an assessment of the state of approximation of Ukrainian legislation to EU law under the second, third and fourth negotiating chapters of the second cluster, Internal Market. This is the result of a thorough analysis of the state of compliance of Ukrainian regulation in the areas of labour market, business, capital flows and services. We are now working on real steps to integrate Ukrainian business into the European legal framework, as well as to open our market to EU entrepreneurs. Effective work on the chapters will allow us to start negotiations on the second cluster as soon as possible,” said Oleksii Sobolev, First Deputy Minister of Economy.

During the screening session “Freedom of movement for workers”, the issues of employee rights protection, mutual recognition of professional qualifications, coordination of social security and free movement of workers within the EU were discussed. The main purpose of such EU regulation is to eliminate any discrimination in employment, remuneration and other conditions in EU member states. It also aims to ensure the legal employment of people working outside their home countries and the effective coordination of social security systems.

“We understand that there is still a lot of work to be done on the path to full EU membership. In particular, we have set an ambitious goal to integrate not only Ukrainians but also skilled EU workers into the labour market to achieve stable annual economic growth and development of the country. In order to create the appropriate favourable conditions, the Government is now actively working on the adaptation of Ukrainian legislation, taking into account European integration recommendations. We are very grateful to our partners for recognising Ukraine’s achievements and jointly coordinating further steps,” said Deputy Minister of Economy Tetiana Berezhna.

Under the third chapter, “Right of establishment and freedom to provide services”, the parties discussed the conformity of Ukrainian legislation with EU rules on equal rights for citizens and legal entities in the provision of services, mutual recognition of professional contracts, qualifications and the regulation of postal services.

The meetings under the fourth chapter, “Free movement of capital”, focused on state property policy, privatisation of state-owned enterprises, corporate governance reform, as well as investment opportunities in Ukraine and prospects for attracting foreign direct investment.

The next round of bilateral meetings on the second Internal Market Cluster will take place in December.

Background

During bilateral meetings as part of the official screening process, the European Commission and the candidate country thoroughly compare the candidate country’s legislation, policy framework, institutional structures and administrative capacities with EU standards. This is the basis for developing recommendations to the European Commission in each area of the negotiation process.

Based on the results of the screening, the European Commission will prepare a report on the compliance of Ukrainian legislation with EU law for each negotiation cluster. This document will finally determine the level of compliance and the further scope of work.