The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenky, advocated, on Tuesday 9 May, for the opening of negotiations for his country’s accession to the EU.
“It’s high time to remove artificial political opacity in the relation between Ukraine and the EU. The time has come to take a positive decision on the opening of negotiations”, he stressed at a press conference in Kyiv, alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The Commission is due to present a report in June on Ukraine’s progress towards Europe, a report Mr Zelensky hopes will be positive. Ms von der Leyen recalled that this report would be oral and that the most important thing was the written report, due in October.
“It is impressive to see that, despite the war, Ukraine is working hard and intensively. Lots of progress has been made. But work has to continue. It is very important to have progress”, added the President, saying she was very confident.
Ms von der Leyen also recalled that the EU continues to provide financial support to Ukraine. “We have an €18 billion package for the whole of 2023, of which we have already disbursed by now €6 billion. This is contributing significantly to closing Ukraine’s budgetary gap. But of course we are already working on financial support beyond 2023”, she promised.
Mr Zelensky also thanked the EU for its military assistance, including the latest decisions on ammunition, adding that his country needed it now.
The two leaders also discussed the issue of restrictions imposed by some Member States on Ukrainian grain (see other news).
The fight against sanction circumvention at the heart of the 11th sanctions package
Ms von der Leyen used her visit to Ukraine to present the 11th package of sanctions against Russia, stating that “the focus of this package is now on cracking down on circumvention”. The EU will sharpen its existing tools, she said. The Commission is therefore proposing to add new products to its transit ban, such as advanced tech products or aircraft parts that are transported to third countries via Russia to ensure that they do not end up in the Kremlin’s hands.
The Commission proposes to ban ‘shadow’ entities from Russia and third countries that intentionally circumvent sanctions.
Finally, the Commission is proposing additional measures in connection with the increase in highly unusual trade flows between the EU and certain third countries, suggesting that goods are then ending up in Russia.
“This is why, secondly, we are proposing a new tool to combat sanction circumvention. If we see that goods are going from the European Union to third countries and then end up in Russia, we could propose to the Member States to sanction those goods’ export”, she announced.
Ms von der Leyen said that this tool would be used as a last resort and with caution, after a very diligent risk analysis and approval by EU Member States.
The Ukrainian president also said he hoped that the new sanctions package would be approved “in the near future” and would contain measures against the Russian nuclear sector, “to be proportional to the level of the threat”. Nuclear power is not part of this 11th package. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)