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Press remarks by Neighbourhood and Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi, following the informal General Affairs Council

23.06.2023 Press and information team of the Delegation to UKRAINE

 

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First of all, I want to thank the Swedish Presidency for reaching out and inviting me here and I was very happy to spend the lunch together with members of the General Affairs Council where I have provided our oral update, something that we have undertook as a commitment back in December. Because as you know, a year ago, the European Council has decided very clearly that there is European perspective offered to Ukraine Moldova and Georgia. The European Council also decided that Ukraine and Moldova are considered as candidate countries to become members of the European Union and in case of Georgia, the European Council is ready to provide candidate status once the priorities specified, so conditions as specified last year, will be addressed and met.

Going back to the debate we have had in December last year, there was a clear request from a number of Member States that they want to see how these countries are making progress with these priorities set forward by the European Council, and this resulted in an undertaking by the Commission to provide a so-called oral update. This is something that we never do because we have an annual regular reporting cycle that we don't like to break. It takes a lot of work to prepare a report like this and this is why as on a truly exceptional basis we took the obligation to provide the Council with the oral update.

The oral update, as I said, is related to the priorities set last year for the three countries, so not the entire accession process as such. Not all the accession criteria. So, this is a much narrower reporting that we have been doing today. The regular one, the broader one, that covers all the areas are to be expected as always in October this year covering not only these three countries but also the six Western Balkans countries.

So, just before I read out a summary of what I have delivered to the ministers  - because this was also a very clear request from the side of the ministers to make it as public as possible - I want to walk you through the different categories. The marking, so to speak, that we have applied when the update was put together. So, we have basically five categories:

  • the first one is no progress, which means that the country has not yet started to deliver on the priority.
  • Then there is the limited progress category, which means that the implementation has started, but it is still at an early stage.
  • Then comes the some progress category, which means that several measures have been taken, but important measures are still pending, meaning overall less than half of the task has been delivered.
  • Good progress means that important measures had been taken, but some measures are still pending, but overall, more than half of the tasks have been delivered.
  • And finally, we have the category of completed, meaning that all the measures have been taken and we consider this step to be fulfilled.

With this explanation, I want to explain you what we have presented to the Council.

First, let me start with Ukraine. In the case of Ukraine there have been 7 steps or priorities identified in the June European Council opinion based on our proposal, based on Commission proposal. We consider now that out of these 7 priorities Ukraine has already completed 2 steps.

First of all, they have successfully addressed the reform of 2 key judicial governance bodies – that was Step 2: High Council of Justice and High Qualification Commission of Judges which are up and running after a merit-based selection process.

The second case where we consider the priority to be complete is the media area that is Step 6 where they have adopted the key media legislation fully in line with our own EU audio-visual media services directive.

Progress on the implementation of the other steps are on track as we say it in our Brussels language, meaning that the work is being delivered on time and as we work together with Ukraine.

Ukraine has achieved good progress on the Constitutional Court reform - this is Step 1- where they have adopted the necessary law in first reading. This law establishes – we think- solid process but it is still premature to say because the law is still pending for second reading in the Rada to which amendments could still be tabled until 24th June. And it is very important that in this process the decisive role of the internationally nominated members will have to be confirmed fully as proposed by the government. Now we need Ukraine to focus on the adoption of the draft law in the second reading, therefore, to make it fully in line as proposed by the government with the Venice Commission recommendations.

Ukraine achieved some progress in the remaining 4 steps, namely anti-corruption, anti-money laundering, de-oligarchisation, and national minorities.

On anti-corruption measures we have seen some progress by appointing the new heads of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Office (SAPO) and the other one, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU). Ukraine now needs to build a credible track record of prosecutions and convictions and to ensure a steady fight against corruption. For this, Ukraine should take further systemic measures, in particular restoring the e-asset declaration system and implementing the adopted anti-corruption state programme.  

On anti-money laundering, Ukraine should on the one hand adopt the draft law for the restoration of the Financial Action Task Force   FATF) -compliant definition of politically exposed persons and on the other hand to continue the legislative alignment with FATF standards, for instance in areas such as virtual assets, financial investigations, or targeted financial sanctions.

On de-oligarchisation, Ukraine has an Action Plan to reduce the influence of oligarchs, which includes systemic reforms in key areas and now we need this to be implemented together with the Venice Commission recommendations on the anti-oligarch law in particular by legally suspending the implementation of the law during the war and by prioritizing systemic laws/measures against oligarchs and this would need to be followed up without any delay.

Regarding the national minorities, Ukraine needs to address the recommendations of the Venice Commission Opinion of this month on the law on minorities, in particular on the use of minority languages in public life, administration, media and books. In this opinion, the Venice Commission also recalled that Ukraine has to address also earlier recommendations of the Venice Commission on Law on Education and on Law on the State Language.  These are dating back to 2017 and 2019. In addition to that, on 11 June, Ukraine has adopted a law extending the transition period for education in minority languages by one year for pupils who started their education before 1 September 2018. This should now allow Ukraine to reconsider the minority school-system in the light also of previous Venice Commission recommendations to ensure the equal opportunities for people belonging to national minorities, avoiding a disproportionate interference in their rights.