Ukraine, France coordinate ahead of European Council meeting
Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Ihor Zhovkva has met with Secretary General of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs Anne-marie Decot to coordinate positions ahead of the European Council meeting on October 23.
As reported on the website of the President of Ukraine on Wednesday, the meeting took place as a continuation of the recent telephone conversation between President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President of France Emmanuel Macron.
According to Zhovkva, Ukraine expects that important decisions will be made at the European Council meeting to support our country, first of all, a new financial instrument will be introduced, which will allow directing frozen Russian assets to protect and restore Ukraine. "We expect that the necessary political and legal decisions will be made and implemented without delay. After all, Russia is once again not demonstrating readiness for peace, but, on the contrary, is intensifying its terror, in particular against our energy infrastructure on the eve of winter," he said.
The parties also discussed the sanctions policy of the European Union. Ukraine expects that the 19th package of sanctions will be adopted in the near future and will include restrictions against the shadow fleet, military-industrial and financial sectors of the Russian Federation, and will contain personal sanctions against those involved in the abduction of Ukrainian children and the spread of Kremlin propaganda.
Special attention will be paid to Ukraine's progress on the path to membership in the European Union. Zhovkva stressed that Ukraine has successfully completed the stage of screening legislation, is fully ready to open the first cluster and will be ready with the rest of the clusters this year.
Decot assured of further support for Ukraine on its path to membership in the European Union and in efforts to achieve real peace. She also noted that France is interested in deepening cooperation with Ukraine, in particular in the field of culture.
In addition, the priorities of France's presidency of the Group of Seven (G7) next year in terms of supporting Ukraine were discussed.
As reported, the European Council summit will be held on October 23-24 in Brussels. According to the agenda of the meeting on October 23, the leaders of the European Union will discuss strengthening support for Ukraine, including through immobilized Russian assets, and Zelenskyy will address the leaders.
The second item on the agenda was defense, said the President of the European Council, António Costa. He noted that hybrid attacks and drone surveillance near critical infrastructure, as well as hostile incursions into the airspace of member states, are "another demonstration of the urgency of accelerating work to achieve a common European defense readiness by 2030."
Other items on the agenda of the meeting include competitiveness and the digital and green transition, the situation in the Middle East, and peace in Gaza.
