During a working visit to Brussels, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olga Stefanishina discussed with the EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič the threats to regional stability posed by the migration crisis triggered by Belarus on the border with the EU. This is reported by the Government Portal.
In this context, the Deputy Prime Minister informed about the security situation on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border and the measures taken by Ukraine. The parties agreed to activate the EU civil protection mechanism.
"Today, Ukraine and the EU face a number of serious challenges created by the eastern neighbors. They are overtly military in nature or are disguised hybrid threats. Unfortunately, these countries use people as a tool to achieve their geopolitical goals. Just as the gas price inflations have nothing to do with the situation on the market - this is blatant geopolitics. The EU should counteract these provocations and develop a strong system of resilience to such challenges," said Olga Stefanishina.
For his part, EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič pointed out that gas crisis will only accelerate Europe's transition from fossil to alternative fuel types.
The day before Olha Stefanyshyna also held a meeting with the European Commissioner for Transport Adina Velian, they discussed implementation of the provisions of the EU Common Aviation Area Agreement (CAA) in Ukraine, inclusion of Ukrainian rivers into the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) and settling the issue of permits for Ukrainian carriers of goods by road.
Olga Stefanyshyna noted that the provisional application of the SAP agreement has already had a positive impact on the development of air traffic between Ukraine and the EU, and thus in the future will contribute to tourism and business contacts. Thus, after the signing of the Agreement a number of airlines announced the opening of new flights.
"The agreement on joint airspace with the EU was signed quite recently, but we already see the first practical results. We are waiting for the Agreement to come into force, so that all the benefits of the "open skies" become available to our air carriers and citizens", - noted the Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine.
