The Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine considers it necessary to defend the rights of Ukraine, including by using the possibilities of the Association Agreement with the EU.
“We need to start using the Agreement with the EU as our opportunity to defend our rights in the European market. We signed the agreement not to be guilty all the time, but in order to get the right to enter the markets, to have equal rights with all European countries,” Deputy Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Mustafa-Masi Nayyem said during the Great Construction: Roads and Bridges forum in Kyiv on Friday.
According to him, the Association Agreement allows it to be revised in five years, as well as to sign additional agreements and protocols.
“In particular, Article 136 says that we can sign an additional agreement that will allow us to move to the transit liberalization. So that the countries with which we border cannot prohibit the delivery of our products to other EU countries. Yes, there can be a two-way relationship. But Poland, Hungary or Slovakia, for example, cannot prohibit us from delivering our products to Germany,” Nayyem said.
According to him, such actions by the EU countries are an artificial trade barrier and discrimination against Ukrainian carriers.
As reported, Ukraine plans to go to arbitration if Poland refuses to resolve the situation with the reduction of international haulage permits by the Polish side.
The Council for Trade and Sustainable Development has selected two representatives of Ukraine to the Group of experts in accordance with Article 301 of the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement, thus Ukraine has completed the formation of its representatives in the Group, the Ministry of Economy reported on the website.
“Based on the results of the interviews with the candidates, two additional experts were selected by voting of the Council members. This allows us to fully form a pool of experts from the Ukrainian side and ensure the full work of the group by the end of this year,” the ministry said following the fifth meeting of the Council on Wednesday.
Additional recruitment of experts from Ukraine became a key issue of the meeting, the Ministry of Economy noted.
The ministry recalled that the expert Group should consist of 15 people: five each from Ukraine and the EU, as well as five people who are not citizens of any of the parties to the Agreement. The main task of the Group is to study any issue under Chapter 13 “Trade and Sustainable Development” of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU, if this has not been satisfied through intergovernmental consultations.
Ukraine selected three experts during the fourth meeting of the Council, held in Kyiv in June 2019.
The approval of the full list of experts requires a decision by the Ukraine-EU subcommittee on trade and sustainable development, which is currently undergoing domestic approval procedures, the Economy Ministry added.
Ukraine, as a European country, has the right to become a member of the EU, but must first fulfill the Association Agreement and the reform program, a high-ranking European official has said.
“We are linked with Ukraine by the Association Agreement signed in 2014, including the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) Agreement, and now we must do everything possible to make it a success story,” he said, announcing the participation of Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in a videoconference of EU foreign ministers.
He noted that this agreement has a huge potential in terms of the economy and social development of Ukraine, while Brussels and Kyiv should focus their efforts on its implementation.
“Ukraine is a European country and in this capacity it can become a member of the EU,” he told journalists.
“But this is not what is on the agenda right now. Today we are talking about the implementation of the Association Agreement, about holding reforms, about things that usually precede the process of joining the union,” the official said.
He said that on Monday Kuleba will join the video meeting of the foreign ministers of the EU countries and will talk with them for about an hour.
“The Ukrainian army has been constantly on alert for seven years, Ukraine spends 6% of its GDP on defense, which it more needs on other budget items,” the official stressed.
In his opinion, Ukraine will be able to move forward, overcoming the conflict in the east of the country and actively pursuing reforms. At the same time, the EU is ready to provide financial and economic support to Kyiv.
“We will continue to do this, because we see this as the only possible way to ensure that Ukraine is a truly independent, sovereign country,” the EU official said.
