EU promises Ukraine continued support against Russian 'blackmail'
Shmyhal - von der Leyen - Photo © European Union 2022
(BRUSSELS) - The EU showed no sign of weakening its support for Ukraine in its war with Russia Monday, as Ukraine's prime minister Denys Shmyhal made a visit to Brussels to further strengthen cooperation.
The 8th meeting of the EU-Ukraine Association Council was the first held since Ukraine was granted status of EU candidate country. At the meeting, Ukraine's prime minister said his country was "paying a very high price for its independence and for its European choice".
He thanked his European partners for their efforts on sanctions and military support. But with no sign of Russia wanting to stop the war, he said Ukraine needed "more modern weapons, missiles, air defence, armoured hardware and aircraft".
He said stepping up the pressure on sanctions, Russian energy and banks, and strengthening military support were "key approaches to success".
"The main message from today's meeting to the whole world is that the European Union will continue supporting Ukraine whatever threat, whatever blackmail Russia puts on us," said the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell: "We will provide our support politically, financially, in the humanitarian field and militarily as long as it takes, and as much as needed."
The meeting discussed the EU-Ukraine bilateral agenda, notably the implementation of the Association Agreement and state of play of EU-Ukraine cooperation. It also discussed EU support since the start of the Russian war of aggression as well as Ukraine's application for EU Membership.
In the margins of the Association Council, the European Commission signed four sectoral agreements to further strengthen EU-Ukraine cooperation. First, the Commission and Ukraine signed a new €500 million budget support programme, to help ensure housing and education for internally displaced persons and returnees and support Ukraine's agriculture sector.
The EU executive also concluded an agreement to associate Ukraine to the Digital Europe Programme. From now on, Ukrainian businesses, organisations, and public administrations will be able to access the calls from the Digital Europe Programme, which has an overall budget of €7.5 billion for the 2021-2027 period. In particular, Ukraine will be able to apply for funding and support for projects in key capacity areas: supercomputing, artificial intelligence, advanced digital skills, and ensuring a wide use of digital technologies across the economy and society, including through Digital Innovation Hubs. And Ukraine's contribution to the Programme has been waived for the current year.
Finally, the Commission signed two agreements paving the way for Ukraine's participation in the EU's Customs and Fiscalis programmes. This is a major boost for cooperation between the EU and Ukraine on customs and tax matters. Ukraine's participation in the Customs programme will also include a connection to the common secure customs network (CCN/CSI), necessary for Ukraine to apply the New Computerised Transit System (NCTS). This connection is seen as essential for Ukraine once it joins two transit Conventions (the EU-Common Transit Countries' Convention on a Common Transit Procedure and the Convention on the Simplification of Formalities in Trade in Goods) on 1 October - an important step forward in Ukraine's pre-accession strategy.