Ukraine should use EU Association Agreement to defend its rights in Europe – opinion.
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 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.
Ukraine exported 1,640 tonnes of seeds to the countries of the European Union in January-October 2021, which is twice the figures for the entire 2020 (820 tonnes) and 5 times more than in 2019 (320 tonnes), according a Thursday posting on the website of the State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection.
“Opening the European market for us is a 10-year way. Negotiations on the recognition of domestic seeds as compliant with EU requirements began in 2011 and lasted a very long time. Now, we have every opportunity to benefit from the many years of work of negotiators – dozens of people from business and government,” the authority quoted its head Vladyslava Mahaletska speaking at the online conference Seed Forum 2021.
According to the authority, in January-October 2021, 1,210 tonnes of corn seeds, 330 tonnes of wheat seeds, and 50 tonnes of sunflower seeds and all other crops in total were exported to the EU.
To open the export of seeds from Ukraine and to comply with the phytosanitary requirements of the EU, in 2021 17 areas in Ukraine on a total of 673 hectares were assigned the status of pest-free, to be able to grow seed on them.
The statistics on COVID-19 incidence gives no reason to hope that Ukraine will remain in the green zone for the European Union, Head of the Parliament Committee on Public Health, Medical Assistance and Medical Insurance Mykhailo Radutsky says.
“Ukraine is already in the red zone for the United States and Switzerland. The EU has given a delay of one week, most likely the EU will place us in the red zone. Unfortunately, statistics does not give us hope that we will remain in the green zone,” he said on the sidelines of Savik Shuster’s Freedom of Speech (Svoboda Slova) talk show on Friday night.
“We will wait for the next meeting of the European Commission,” Radutsky said.
Olha Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, hopes that Ukraine will receive the second tranche of macro-financial assistance from the European Union in the amount of EUR 600 million in late October – early November.
“I can confirm for sure that already this month, or at the very beginning of November, we will receive the second tranche in the amount of EUR 600 million,” Stefanishyna told reporters in Kyiv on Thursday.
Some countries of the European Union may temporarily restrict entry for citizens of Ukraine due to the increase in the incidence of coronavirus (COVID-19) and the exclusion of our country from the so-called “green zone,” but at the moment such a decision has not yet been made, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Oleh Nikolenko has said.
“The European Union has not yet made a formal decision. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has previously reported that in the event of an increase in the incidence of COVID-19 in Ukraine, the EU may adopt a recommendation to exclude our state from the list of countries whose citizens can make non-essential trips to the European Union. Brussels reviews the list of countries every two weeks and adjusts it depending on the development of the epidemic situation,” he said on Facebook.
The Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the epidemic situation is worsening not only in Ukraine and in recent weeks the EU has already significantly reduced the list of countries in the “green zone,” and some EU countries have already started to strengthen quarantine measures for their citizens.
“It is important to understand that […] if a decision is made, the EU does not automatically establish new rules for crossing the border, but only provides recommendations to the EU member states. […] Up-to-date information on the conditions of entry of Ukrainian citizens to each individual country of the EU and other countries of the world is available on the interactive map of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine: https://tripadvisor.mfa.gov.ua. It is updated in real time,” Nikolenko said.
He said that one should not expect a complete closure of borders, as last year, and vaccination in the future will remain one of the key conditions for unhindered entry into most countries.
The Foreign Ministry spokesperson also said that if the EU decides to exclude Ukraine from the green zone, it does not cancel the visa-free travel, but only introduces temporary restrictions on tourist trips to counter the spread of COVID-19 infection. “The decision can also be later revised at the next update of the list in case the epidemic situation improves,” the representative of the foreign ministry said.
According to Nikolenko, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and the embassies are actively working with foreign partners so that even in the difficult conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, the circle of countries open to travel for Ukrainian citizens remains as wide as possible and further expands.
