On Tuesday (November 30), it is hoped that one day the three prime ministers of the EU’s eastern neighbors who have joined the EU will come to Brussels to try to show the way forward for their cooperation.
The visit was held before the summit of EU leaders on December 15th. Their leaders came from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, gathered in accordance with the EU’s Eastern Partnership (EaP) policy.
Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, they all want to join the European Union, Recently grouped together After signing an alliance agreement to deepen trade and political relations with the EU in exchange for reforms, accelerate integration into the EU.
“This commitment is stronger than ever before,” Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili told reporters after the head of government met with the European Commission, Council and the President of the Parliament.
So far, this self-proclaimed “joint trio” initiative has hardly received the support of the committee, and the committee has only It wasn’t until last summer that the word was spoken publicly.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmekhar apparently is trying to alleviate concerns that this form will put Armenia and Azerbaijan into trouble. He stated that the cooperation of these three countries “will complement the Eastern Partnership instrument and will not be designed to replace existing problems.” .
According to him, Kiev especially hopes to establish more connections in the green and digital fields, connectivity, energy security, justice and internal affairs, strategic communication and health.
However, the prerequisite for more EU benefits will be to strengthen the fight against corruption, which is a long-standing problem in the region, which is clearly not mentioned in the statements of the prime ministers of Ukraine and Georgia.
Natalia Gavrilița of Moldova was the only one who paid attention to corruption at a press conference where reporters could not ask questions. She stated that the country of Moldova is focusing on “long overdue reforms” that include justice and combating corruption.
This will be the key, because EU officials will often quickly point out that corruption is damaging investment in Brussels, and this problem has become more acute with the EU’s upcoming 2.3 billion euro investment plan in the region.
Luc Devigne, a senior official of the European Union’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (EEAS) responsible for EaP, event Tuesday (November 30).
“This has been done in the past, and due to the lack of reforms or the regression of certain democratic indicators, we have frozen – we have to freeze – our aid,” he said.
“I think we are seeing more and more conditional principles being applied in the EU because we have seen, sometimes, I want to say that this is the only effective way,” he added.
Green issues in Ukraine
Addressing corruption is also necessary for deeper departmental integration within the broad policies sought by the trio.
A typical example is Ukraine. Last Friday (November 26), the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky (Volodymyr Zelensky) defendant The oligarch Rinat Akhmetov participated in a planned coup attempt in the future, although according to the head of state, the businessman was “established” and “drawn into the war against Ukraine.”Akhmetov Refused Allegations.
At the same time, Akhmetov’s largest Ukrainian energy group DTEK has promised to go to court. it says Approximately 97.7 million euros (3 billion UAE) were not repaid as part of the country’s transfer of debt to renewable energy producers.
So far, the authorities have not formally stated why DTEK has not received what the company said in arrears.
EURACTIV understands that representatives of the company will hold meetings with the cabinet of the EU Energy Minister Kadri Simson and other officials of the EU diplomatic service in the coming days.
The issue of greening occupies an important position on the EU’s agenda, so the issue of the renewable energy market may attract the attention of Brussels, which itself advocates reforms of the energy sector in its surrounding areas.
For example, by 2025, two-tenths of the highest EaP target is green, including the target of 250,000 households in the region. The energy consumption of these households is expected to be reduced by at least 20% due to EU investment to improve energy efficiency.
According to a recent report, Brussels hopes that its 2.3 billion euro investment in the region will generate 17 billion euros in the coming period, of which only 3.4 billion euros are envisaged to promote sustainable energy. Learn.
Maris Kunickis, CEO of DTEK Renewables, told EURACTIV: “We firmly believe that this situation does not comply with the principles of transparency, equality and proportionality.”
In his view, this move “sends a negative signal of the huge risks associated with investing in the Ukrainian economy, and it will be difficult for Ukraine to restore the trust of international investors.”
In Kunix’s view, “the current scandal in the Ukrainian renewable energy market will have a negative impact on the further development of the renewable energy industry, because this is one of the milestones in Ukraine’s decarbonization process.”
[Edited by Benjamin Fox]
