The Chancellor of the Government met with the head of DG NEAR Gert Jan Koopman
The Chancellor of the Government, Giedrė Balčytytė, met with the Director-General of the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations, Gert Jan Koopman, to discuss cooperation on Ukraine‘s reconstruction and Euro-integration this Wednesday.
“Lithuania initiated the first reconstruction projects in Ukraine a little more than a year ago, and some of them have already been successfully completed, so we see that international involvement by Ukraine’s partners is already possible with smooth cooperation from Ukrainian institutions. The role of the European Commission is especially important to ensure this process is inclusive, coordinated, based on responsibility sharing and as clear as possible to both Ukrainians and the countries that support them,” said the Chancellor of the Government, G. Balčytytė.
During the meeting, it was noted that by helping Ukraine restore what was lost due to the brutal Russian war, together we will bring it closer to becoming a EU member. “Ukraine’s progress in implementing the necessary reforms opens a way to begin the negotiation for EU membership as early as this year. And so we hope that we will be able to send a positive signal for the beginning of membership negotiations this year,” said G. Balčytytė.
As the Chancellor of the Government noted during the meeting, Lithuania has both the experience and the know-how needed for active involvement in EU reconstruction programs in Ukraine, and the Lithuanian Project Management Agency has collected a large portfolio of completed and ongoing projects.
Support for Ukraine in implementing the necessary reforms was also discussed in the meeting.
The Chancellor of the Government stressed how important it is to ensure know-how and technical support for Ukraine, so that it could introduce the necessary institutional reforms and properly prepare for accession negotiations.
While following the reform implementation and aiding Ukraine in the process, we should not ignore the war conditions that make the work that much harder, said G. Balčytytė, also noting that Ukraine proved itself capable of achieving huge progress despite the circumstances.