The Presidents of the European Council, Charles Michel, and of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, praised Ukraine’s ongoing efforts to move closer to the European Union on Tuesday 12 October in Kiev, without going so far as to explicitly advocate Ukrainian membership of the EU, notably because of the extreme sensitivity regarding it’s Russian neighbour on this issue.
“We belong to the same European family”, said Mr Michel, for whom the joint statement adopted at the end of the 23rd EU/Ukraine Summit sets out “an operational framework” that should make it possible to “accelerate the rapprochement, the connection with the European Union” (see EUROPE 12809/15 and 12786/2). He mentioned the participation of “17,000 Ukrainian students” in the Erasmus+ programme.
Like Mr Michel, Mrs von der Leyen praised the efforts of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to anchor European values such as respect for the “Rule of law” in his country, despite countervailing forces. “We share the same history, the same values. (...) I think we share the same destiny as one European family", she considered.
For Mr Zelensky, the Ukrainians have the right to receive “a signal” that EU membership is “the finishing line” of the rapprochement process.
However, Mr Michel recalled that such a process requires “mobilising the debate with all Member States”. “We see a very clear acceleration of this dynamic, of this path to connect Ukraine and the EU more”, he simply repeated. Mrs von der Leyen did not go so far as to offer the Ukrainians a European perspective. “We are very close and we grow closer to each other” thanks to “reforms” in Ukraine, “gradual economic integration” with the EU, and deepening our political association.
Energy. Faced with the need to deal with Russia to improve the EU’s energy supply and safeguard the payment of royalties for the transit service provided by Ukraine, the two partners promise to assist each other.
But the ultimate goal is “energy independence” through supply agreements and investments in renewables and energy efficiency, said Mrs von der Leyen.
Understanding Ukrainian “concerns” about insufficient supplies from Russian gas company Gazprom, she spoke of setting up a dialogue between experts in order to establish a long-term “common strategy” along three lines: - the development of gas supply mapping; - security of supply with the possibility of reversing gas flows from the EU to Ukraine, notably from Slovakia; - the potential creation of strategic energy reserves.
“It is urgent to intensify our cooperation in order to make sure that we take Ukraine into consideration as an important transit country” for Russian gas to the EU, Mr Michel said.
With the Nord Stream II pipeline linking Russia directly to Germany about to come into service, Moscow could try to destabilise Ukraine by not renewing the current transit agreements running until 2024, which are a financial windfall for the country. The declaration of the bilateral summit also reaffirms the EU’s support for the continuation of gas transit via Ukraine “beyond 2024”.
The issue of energy security was discussed at length, noted Mr Zelensky. He recalled Gazprom’ s obligation to respect EU law, called for investments in energy efficiency with possible EU assistance and mentioned the possibility of increasing Ukraine’s nuclear energy capacity. Whatever the scenario, the transit clauses for Russian gas to the EU should be preserved, he stressed.
The European Commission will on Wednesday present a ‘toolbox’ of actions to tackle the current surge in gas prices in Europe (see EUROPE 12796/9).
Security and defence. In the security and defence field, the EU reiterates its commitment to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine over the territories of Crimea and Sevastopol.
“We call on Russia to assume its responsibility” as a party to the Minsk agreements that ended the fighting in Eastern Ukraine, Mrs von der Leyen said.
The EU welcomes Ukraine’s forthcoming participation in the EUFOR Althea mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina and notes its willingness to participate in Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) projects.
At this stage, the EU says it will explore the possibility of increasing Ukraine’s resilience through military training. Kiev wants an EU military training mission to be set up. Specific discussions will take place in November in the Political and Security Committee (PSC) of the EU Council.
Finally, both partners welcome the holding of the first bilateral cyber security dialogue in June. A second similar event will take place in the second quarter of 2022.
Trade. The 23rd EU-Ukraine Summit was an opportunity for Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen to welcome the efforts made under the Association Agreement, which has been in full force since 2017. The President of the European Council pointed out that trade volumes had increased by 65% since the implementation of the commercial side of the bilateral agreement (see EUROPE 11460/1) in early 2016.
The Association Agreement gradually eliminates tariffs and aims to converge Ukrainian rules in certain industrial sectors and for agricultural products towards EU law. In this sense, the EU and Ukraine have announced the launch of negotiations to broaden and accelerate the elimination of tariffs, as provided for in the Agreement.
The two partners also committed themselves to the full implementation of the Free Trade Agreement between them (DCFTA). This includes resolving the dispute over Ukrainian export bans on certain timber products. The EU was granted the establishment of an arbitration panel in February 2020 to challenge this export restriction, which it considers prohibited by the Association Agreement.
While the summit addressed issues of ecological transition, Ukraine “presented its position” on the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). The joint statement does not provide further details on the content of the discussions, while Kiev has made no secret of its hostility to the mechanism (see EUROPE 12723/10). Ukraine is among the countries potentially most affected by the CBAM, as presented by the European Commission in July (see EUROPE 12762/5).
Finally, the EU and Ukraine welcomed progress on the Agreement on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products (ACAA). The second phase of pre-assessment for quality infrastructure has started.
Connectivity. At the summit, representatives of the EU and Ukraine signed an aviation agreement, which sets common standards in terms of aviation safety and air traffic management.
This agreement “promises high standards for safe flights, new opportunities for citizens and businesses, more flights and a wider geographical range for travel”, said Mr Zelensky.
The agreement will allow European airlines to operate direct flights to Ukraine from all EU airports and vice versa for Ukrainian airlines. Restrictions on flights between Ukraine and the EU are lifted. Although ratification by both parties is required, the agreement provisionally entered into force on 12 October.
Participation in European programmes. For the period 2021-2027, Ukraine’s participation in the Horizon Europe research programme, the Euratom training and research programme and the Creative Europe media and culture funding programme has now been agreed.
Kiev is also interested in taking part in other European programmes such as Erasmus +, the EU4health framework programme and the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.
See the EU/Ukraine statement: https://bit.ly/3oUseiP (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion and Léa Marchal)