News

O n 16 April in Vilnius, the fifth meeting of the Ukraine-Lithuania Commission on European integration took place. During the meeting, Ukraine’s European integration, emerging problems and a possible institutional support of Lithuania were discussed.

The Commission was established by the Lithuanian-Ukrainian Intergovernmental Co-operation Council in 2003.

At the meeting of the Commission Lithuania’s delegation was headed by Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Žygimantas Pavilionis and Ukraine’s delegation was headed by Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Valery Pyatnitsky.

Ž.Pavilionis welcomed Ukraine’s progress in the negotiations with the European Union on the political part of the Association Agreement and urged on the representatives from Ukraine to make more efforts in order to complete the negotiations on a deepened free trade agreement, which should become an integral part of the Association Agreement. The Undersecretary of the Ministry expressed hope that the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement would be signed still this year, during Sweden’s EU Presidency.

Ž.Pavilionis also encouraged the representatives from Ukraine to be more actively involved in the activities of the new EU Eastern Partnership initiative and to use all the possibilities that it provides.

The projects that Lithuanian institutions implemented during the recent years in Ukraine were presented at the meeting. In 2008, Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs financed implementation of 12 projects, such as sharing experience on Euro-integration matters in the fields of customs, social security and labour, supervision of insurance, interregional cooperation promotion, strengthening of activities of non-governmental organisations.

While presenting the perspectives of further cooperation, Ž.Pavilionis indicated that the economic downturn would force us to review once again the expediency and effectiveness of cooperation.

“For the Lithuanian-Ukrainian cooperation we have to attract financing from such EU funds and programs as Twinning, the Technical Assistance Information Exchange Office (TAIEX) or the new Eastern Partnership programme. This would significantly help to implement the Lithuanian-Ukrainian strategic partnership at an international level,” said Ž.Pavilionis.

During the meeting an issue was also raised regarding the decision that was made by the Ukrainian Government from 18 March to apply import duties that would be increased by 13 percent for refrigerators and cars. The Undersecretary of the Ministry remarked that this was in breach of Ukraine’ international commitments within the World Trade Organisation and would be detrimental to Lithuanian exporters, first of all, to the Lithuanian refrigerator manufacturers, the export of which to Ukraine amounted to about 80 million Litas last year.