Joint Meeting Held between Committee on Integration of Ukraine into EU and European Affairs Committee of Portuguese Parliament

Ukraine is paying an extraordinary price for the right to be itself, choose its future, preserve its national identity and its european choice, so it is fundamental that all internal transformation and interaction with European countries culminate in Ukraine's full accession to the European Union.

This was stated by Committee Chair Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze during a joint meeting of the Committee on the Integration of Ukraine into the EU and the European Affairs Committee of the Portuguese Parliament.

"We are ready to enter into a discussion regarding a gradual approach to membership, to discuss these proposals, but at the same time we want you all to know: it is critical for us that this will not be any substitute for our membership in the European Union in the future," she emphasized.

The Committee Chair informed her Portuguese partners about the deterioration of the security situation in Ukraine and the transformation of a large number of rear cities into front-line ones: "Over the past month and a half, we have been living in a mode of almost continuous air raid alerts from missile attacks and jet drone attacks actively used by the Russian Federation today. This terror is increasingly directed against the civilian population. Russia cannot achieve results on the battlefield and is therefore trying to break the will of the Ukrainian people by actively shelling schools, hospitals, scientific institutions, residential buildings, and now the capital's bridges connecting the right and left banks of the Dnipro."

She expressed hope that next week a decision would be made to open the next two negotiating clusters of Ukraine's accession to the EU, the second and third, and by the end of the year, all six. In this context, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze informed about parliamentary-governmental cooperation on updating legislation on the use of national minority languages in the educational process: "We expect this bill to be supported, and this will make it possible to unblock another veto of the new Hungarian government and allow us to move further along the path of transformation."

The Chair and members of the committee thanked Portugal for its support of Ukraine in the war against the Russian aggressor and the process of European integration. Member of Parliament Maria Mezentseva expressed gratitude for Portugal's support of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine, which lays down important financial and technical instruments for the continuation of our state's European integration.

Committee Secretary Valentyn Nalyvaichenko drew the attention of Portuguese parliamentarians to the fact that Ukrainian defenders are extremely motivated by Ukraine's movement toward EU membership, which is also the national idea of Ukrainians and enjoys the support of the entire Parliament.