7/11/2003
Commissioner Patten in Ukraine, 10-11 November 2003: Wider Europe Conference and bilateral visit

On 10 November, External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten will attend the conference entitled 'Wider Europe: intensification of co-operation in Central-Eastern Europe through common borders with the enlarged EU', which will be hosted by Ukraine's Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Hryshchenko.

At the Conference, Commissioner Patten will outline the enormous potential of the EU's 'Wider Europe' policy for Ukraine and neighbouring countries, in particular as regards cross-border and regional co-operation and people-to-people contacts. In the margins, Commissioner Patten will meet with President Leonid Kuchma, Prime Minister Victor Yanukovich, Foreign Minister Hryshchenko and the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) Volodymyr Lytvyn. He will also have an informal meeting with representatives of the main Ukrainian opposition parties. Commissioner Patten will also deliver a speech on EU Foreign Policy at the Kyiv International Taras Shevchenko Univeristy, and on 11 November, will visit the Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant, where he will inform himself about the Shelter implementation and EU funded projects.

Mr Patten's visit is to be seen in the context of the strategic partnership between the EU and Ukraine and the high priority given by the EU to Ukraine in the framework of the Wider Europe initiative.

The enlargement of the Union in May 2004 with ten new members, most of them in Central Europe, will impact profoundly both on the Union itself and on the Union's relations with its neighbours and the world. At the Conference, which will also be attended by High level representatives of EU candidate countries, the Italian EU Presidency, Russia, Moldova and Belarus, Commissioner Patten will stress the Commission's view, confirmed both by experience and by an assessment of present conditions, that enlargement will benefit not only the Union, but also the Union's Eastern neighbours and other partners. He will encourage all sides to work together to address challenges and problems in this process, which might arise in particular in the short-term. Commissioner Patten will draw attention to the opportunities for co-operation along the future enlarged EU borders as described in the Commission's communications of 11 March and 1 July 2003 on the Wider Europe concept and a New Neighbourhood Instrument1, as well as Commission proposals of 14 August 2003 to facilitate local border traffic at the EU's external land borders2.

The main topics of discussion in the bilateral meetings are expected to be the further implementation of the EU-Ukraine Partnership and Co-operation Agreement (PCA), the EU's Wider Europe Initiative and its implementation with Ukraine, and the economic and political reform process in Ukraine. The Commissioner will reiterate the importance of democratic procedures and media freedom in the run-up to next year's Presidential elections. Following the visit of Commissioner Verheugen to Ukraine in September and the discussions at the EU-Ukraine Summit on 7 October in Yalta, Commissioner Patten will emphasise the opportunities for Ukraine to come closer to the EU by using the full potential of the PCA and the Wider Europe initiative, based on common values (democracy, rule of law, human rights, media freedom) and continued progress in the economic and democratic reform process.

During his visit, Commissioner Patten will stress the importance which the EU attaches to nuclear safety, in particular in respect to the completion of Khmelnitiskiy (K2) and Rivine (R4) Nuclear Power Plants. He will reiterate the readiness of the Commission to continue to assist Ukraine in this area. Following the visit to the Chernobyl Power Plant, the Commissioner will lay the symbolic first brick to the construction of an EU-funded Industrial Centre for Solid Radioactive Waste Treatment (€34 million).