EU Ambassador to Ukraine Met with IFNUL Students
MARCH 31, 2017 – The Ambassador of the European Union to Ukraine Hugues Mingarelli met with the students of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv to talk about the perspectives and priorities of deepening political, economic and social partnership between Ukraine and the EU. In particular, the EU diplomat focused on key aspects of EU-Ukraine relations, reforms that should hold our country towards integration into European structures and priorities of the EU Delegation to Ukraine.
The Ambassador of the European Union Hugues Mingarelli noted that the economic and political situation in Ukraine is being permanently focused by the EU, because our country is a priority partner for the EU. Hence, EU Delegation in Kyiv is ready to make every effort to overcome the problems of the Ukrainian economy, politics and society.
Hugues Mingarelli considers the Russian aggression as the gratest problem of modern Ukraine, together with corruption, which Ukraine is deeply penetrated in. However, the diplomat also said that Ukraine has all chances to become a major developed society with a socially oriented economy, but that the difficulties that our country is experiencing are to be overcomed as soon as possible. EU Ambassador added that in recent years Ukraine has done a lot to fight corruption: the National Anti-Corruptional Bureau, Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the practice of e-declaration had been created.
Nevertheless, the democratic reforms need to be maintained and intensified. Thus, the European Union is ready to assist Ukraine in reforms’ implementation and even in pushing the current government to implement important for the Ukrainian economy transformations. One of the main priorities for the development of the economic potential of Ukraine is the reform of the energy sector, which, according to the current situation, serves as the key to independence. Among other things, the diplomat also stressed the need to complete the decentralization reform, deepening of cooperation between the Ukrainian universities with European ones and improving the investment climate in Ukraine.
The EU Ambassador claims that the greatest contribution Ukraine could make for the construction of a consolidated European community are the Ukrainians themselves. Hugues Mingarelli stressed that the Ukrainians are extremely active, they know many languages, open to the conversation and deeply interested in everything what is going on in the world.