On January 30, 2025, bilateral meetings between representatives of Ukraine and the European Commission began in Brussels, Belgium, as part of the official screening process of Ukraine's legislation alignment with EU law under Chapter 30 "External Relations." These meetings are a component of Ukraine's EU accession negotiation process.
In her opening speech, Chief Negotiator, Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and Minister of Justice of Ukraine, Olha Stefanishyna, emphasized that Ukraine is synchronizing its policies with the EU and will continue the process of adapting its legislation to EU law.
"Ukraine remains committed to the process of harmonizing its national legislation with EU law in the field of external relations. The pace and scope of these changes will be determined taking into account the dynamics of trade relations with the European Union in the period preceding membership, including existing trade liberalization measures under autonomous trade preferences and the Association Agreement. This is Ukraine's key position, meaning that we adopt the EU acquis, but the scope and timelines for implementation will depend directly on further decisions made in the coming years in the area of trade liberalization, which will be subject to separate agreements outside the enlargement process," said Olha Stefanishyna.
The Vice Prime Minister also focused on the development of external relations in the context of humanitarian aid provision.
"Even during the ongoing full-scale war, Ukraine not only maintains a high level of fulfilling its obligations but also demonstrates its readiness to support other countries, with an appropriate legislative base and practical experience in providing humanitarian assistance," she added.
The Ukrainian delegation includes Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine and Trade Representative of Ukraine Taras Kachka, Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Oksana Osmachko, Deputy Minister of Justice Svitlana Tereshchenko, Member of Parliament Yevhenii Bragar, Acting Director of the Department of Foreign Economic Activity and Trade Protection of the Ministry of Economy Olena Zasypkina, Director of the State Gemological Center of Ukraine Andriy Tkalenko, General Director of the Government Office for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Oleksandr Ilkov, and others.
During the bilateral meetings under Chapter 30 "External Relations," the Ukrainian delegation will present reports covering the following issues:
- EU foreign policy and humanitarian policy;
- Common trade policy;
- Autonomous preferential trade measures;
- Regional/bilateral frameworks of the common trade policy;
- Investments.
Reference
Chapter 30 "External Relations" is part of Negotiation Cluster 6. Its provisions include EU legal acts that are mostly directly applicable, arising from multilateral and bilateral trade commitments of the EU, as well as a range of autonomous trade measures.
