Strasbourg, 20
January 2016
President,
Honourable Members,
I
am grateful for this opportunity to take stock of where we are more than one
year since this House approved the Association Agreements with Ukraine,
Georgia, and Moldova, followed shortly after also by the provisional
application of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area with Ukraine.
For Ukraine the DCFTA can
bring significant economic benefits. Ukrainian businesses will now receive
stable and predictable preferential access to the largest market in the world
with 500 million customers.
And,
EU enterprises will be able to benefit from easier access to the Ukrainian
market, though we must help Ukraine develop the right conditions to encourage
new business and investment relationships.
Over
20 meetings were held in trilateral format to address alleged Russian
concerns about the DCFTA implementation. Now Ukraine faces a number of
measures imposed by Russia impeding trade and transit, and will need our
support here too.
In
2016 will be stepping up our efforts to support Ukraine with more co-ordination
with EU member states and greater visibility for our work, particularly on
implementation of the DCFTA.
We will build on current support programmes to
improve the business climate, provide support to small and medium-sized
enterprises, and help Ukraine find new markets. Ukraine needs to show it is
open for business by aligning with EU standards in key sectors and taking
decisive action on rule of law. The Support Group for Ukraine is playing a key
role with the Commission in all these areas.
Despite
very challenging circumstances – the Ukrainian government has made progress in
implementing the Association Agreement. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau and
new national police have started to work. The selection process for an
Anti-Corruption Prosecutor has been completed. The government has also adopted
a law on the natural gas market, which aims at bringing the gas sector of
Ukraine in line with the EU Third Energy Package.
These
developments were welcomed at the second Association Council in Brussels on 7
December, but we should not underestimate the challenges ahead.
The
fight against corruption, reform of the judiciary and of the public
administration, as well as amendments to the Constitution, particularly the
second reading on decentralisation, will require courage and political will.
Shortly
before Christmas, we published our final report on Ukraine's implementation of
the Visa Liberalisation Action Plan, which concluded that, since necessary
progress had been made and a number of additional commitments undertaken by the
Ukrainian leadership, a positive recommendation for visa-free travel could be
made. We aim to present a legislative proposal to pave the way for visa
liberalisation with Ukraine soon.
Turning
to Moldova, the countryhas made great strides in
concluding and implementing the Association Agreement and DCFTA with the EU.
Since 1 January, the region of Transnistria also has the possibility to trade
preferentially under the DCFTA, making an important contribution to our
conflict resolution efforts.
But
recent Moldovan governments have not implemented important reforms. We are
currently witnessing a highly unstable political situation which is an obstacle
also to the effective implementation of the Association Agreement and making
full use of the opportunities.
The
country is in great need of stable leadership, with the determination and
energy required to address a number of problematic issues including high-level
corruption. This is necessary before Moldova can proceed with other key reforms
- in particular in the justice, financial and media sectors, and reform of the
public administration.
Finally,
as regards Georgia, impressive efforts have been made to
implement the Association Agreement, and the results are already visible with
strong growth in Foreign Direct Investment.
Other indicators also show
promising signs. The Visa Liberalisation Action Plan has proven to be an
effective tool for promoting a range of reforms, but Georgia has gone beyond
the Action Plan benchmarks and taken further steps to reform the judiciary as
well as the prosecutor's office. The result was our positive report last
December and with Georgia too we will press ahead now with legislation to
achieve full visa liberalisation as soon as possible.
In summary,
we can be happy that we have already come so far with our three Association
Agreement partners but we still have a long way to go, and no room at all for
complacency. I look forward to hearing the honourable members' views during the
debate.
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