In a joint statement from the EU-Ukraine summit, European Council President Donald Tusk, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko underlined the importance of "continuing and accelerating reform efforts, in particular in the fight against corruption".
According to the three presidents, this must come through continued efforts in the reform of the judiciary and prosecution to strengthen the rule of law in Ukraine, work on "the necessary independence and full effectiveness of all anti-corruption institutions", the establishment of "an effective verification mechanism" of asset e-declarations and revoking the electronic asset declaration obligation from civic activists. Ukraine ranks 130th of 180 countries in Transparency International's ranking of the fight against corruption.
"The anti-corruption reforms must remain at the top of the agenda", Tusk told press, while Juncker said it was Ukraine's "burning obligation", adding that there was "a lot of corruption in Ukraine, as elsewhere". Poroshenko meanwhile listed the many structures set up to fight corruption, and he especially underlined the progress made in the areas of banking and energy. He added that Ukraine had taken more measures in the fight against corruption that any other country.
While hailing the adoption of the High Anti-Corruption Court as "an important step forward in the fight against corruption", the three presidents said they looked forward to "the swift adoption of the necessary amendments ensuring its jurisdiction on appeals of relevant first instance court decisions". The EU would like this court to be able to work on pending cases too. The presidents welcomed the intention to make the court fully operational by the end of the year. According to Poroshenko, the Ukrainian parliament is due to decide, on Wednesday 11 July, on the amendments "to strengthen this court's effectiveness".
The fight against corruption is also one of the criteria for the payment of the new €1 billion macro-financial assistance. Poroshenko hoped the first payment of this assistance would be made in the autumn.
The summit was the last before the parliamentary and presidential elections in Ukraine and before the European elections, and it was the opportunity to review "the vast process of reform undertaken by Ukraine" and also EU-Ukraine cooperation and both parties' "continued commitment to strengthen the association policy and economic integration". Juncker said he was "more than satisfied" at the progress achieved in four years, in other words, the first summit that brought Juncker, Tusk and Poroshenko together. "There has been much more progress (in four years) than in the previous 20 years", he said.
They agreed to develop their sectoral cooperation, especially on education, energy, the digital market and the deepening of customs cooperation. Poroshenko also announced that the EU and Ukraine would strengthen their cooperation and have joint actions to counter any action that would be undertaken to skew the elections, be it disinformation campaigns or cyber attacks.
The presidents also showed a united front as regards the annexation of Crimea and the conflict in eastern Ukraine. "It is high time to move from a policy of non-recognition to a strategy of well-coordinated de-occupation", Poroshenko stated. Both parties called for the immediate release of Ukrainian citizens who are illegally imprisoned in Crimea and Russia.
On the sidelines of the summit, the European Investment Bank and Ukraine signed a €75 million loan for investment in urban road safety in five cities of the country (Dnipro, Kharkiv, Kiev, Lviv and Odessa) which represent around 7 million inhabitants. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)