Czechia presents plan for Ukraine's and Moldova's integration into EU's internal market

On Tuesday, 28 January, Czech Minister for European Affairs Martin Dvořák presented a plan for Ukraine’s and Moldova’s integration into the EU's internal market to his European colleagues.

As reported by ČTK news agency, Dvořák said that the plan focuses on specific proposals to deepen EU cooperation with Ukraine and Moldova, in particular in energy, telecommunications, environment and agriculture.

"I presented the Czech initiative to help Moldova and Ukraine integrate into the internal market faster. We believe this is an important step that can speed up the whole process," the Czech minister explained.

He added that so far, the Czechs have managed to enlist the support of nine other EU countries: Estonia, Finland, Germany, Romania, Latvia, Slovenia, Sweden and Denmark.

The document, quoted by ČTK, states that further economic integration into the EU through free trade agreements would significantly support Moldova and Ukraine "in their efforts to counteract the pernicious Russian influence".

Dvořák said that the acceleration of integration would be based on "our technical assistance, closer cooperation, creation of working groups and establishing contacts".

The preparation of the plan and its presentation at the EU level became known last week.

Meanwhile, according to media reports, the European Commission is allegedly considering not extending the preferential trade regime for Ukraine in its current form and has already started technical negotiations on new trade terms.