European Commission

The EU has sent 167 power generators to Ukraine as emergency aid after Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure severely damaged its power supply.

The EU has agreed to extend the suspension of import duties and quotas on Ukrainian exports to the EU until June 5, 2025, while strengthening safeguards for sensitive agricultural products such as poultry, eggs, sugar, oats, corn, cereals, and honey.

The EU has temporarily agreed to duty-free trade for Ukraine until June 2025, but with the possibility of imposing restrictions on sensitive agricultural products such as poultry, eggs, sugar, oats, cereals, corn, and honey if imports exceed the average level from July 2021 to December 2023.

Moldova's ambassador to the EU expects Chisinau to start accession talks with the EU by the end of June 2024, moving faster than the Western Balkan countries in the accession process.

Ukraine proposes to ban air transit to Russia and Belarus to prevent Russian businesses and tourists from using EU airspace and to increase sanctions pressure on the aggressor.

Portugal's new government, led by Prime Minister Luiz Montenegro, supports Ukraine's accession to the European Union, having put aside previous hesitations.

The EU called on Georgia to refuse to revise the draft law on "transparency of foreign influence" due to its potential impact on media freedom and Georgia's EU accession process.

The government is preparing the SME Recovery Strategy until 2027, taking into account proposals from business and experts, to address the pressing problems of SMEs in Ukraine and promote their growth, digital transformation, integration into the European market, and increase their competitiveness and innovation potential in line with EU standards.

Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin discussed current priorities and identified steps needed to support Ukraine in its fight for justice with EU representatives at the conference "Restoring Justice for Ukraine" in The Hague.

Russia's massive missile and drone strikes on civilian targets and critical energy infrastructure in Ukraine are Putin's response to those who believe that peace with him is possible, the European Commission says.

Representatives from 57 countries will discuss "Restoring Justice for Ukraine" at a conference in The Hague today with the aim of ending impunity and providing compensation to victims of Russia's crimes.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba will visit The Hague to take part in a ministerial conference on restoring justice in Ukraine and discuss the establishment of a Special Tribunal for the crime of Russian aggression against Ukraine.

Romania and Bulgaria have partially joined the Schengen area for air and sea travel, allowing free movement without document checks, but land border controls remain in place due to Austria's opposition on migration grounds.

China promises to import more high-quality goods and services from France amid ongoing trade tensions over the export of Chinese electric vehicles to Europe.

President Zelenskyy met with a delegation from the European Parliament's Renewal of Europe group to discuss military assistance, countering Russian propaganda, and Ukraine's integration into the EU, emphasizing the need to start accession talks during Belgium's EU presidency.

Ukraine has submitted proposals to Poland for the construction of the Krakowiec-Lviv-Brody-Rivne highway, and the project is already being discussed between the ministries and Polish businesses that are interested in it.

Ukraine and Poland agree on five steps to unblock the border, including restrictions on exports of Ukrainian agricultural products, an EU review of agricultural policy and transport, a ban on exports of Russian and Belarusian agricultural products to the EU, the creation of an anti-crisis headquarters, and permission to transit fuel across the border.

Poland will work to convene the first intergovernmental conference between the EU and Ukraine no later than June 2024, which will mark the start of negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU.

The EU law on critical raw materials is aimed at diversifying sources of supply of critical raw materials, not at confronting China, according to a European official.

Ukraine and Poland held governmental consultations in Warsaw to resolve issues such as the situation at the border and agricultural trade and to find mutually beneficial solutions through dialogue and compromise.

The EU postponed the decision to continue trade liberalization with Ukraine until the evening after talks on possible restrictions on imports of certain agricultural products.

Euroclear, which holds most of the Russian central bank's frozen assets in Europe, reportedly received permission to keep the profits earned on these assets in 2022 and 2023 instead of using the funds to support Ukraine's military efforts.

Ukraine will lose millions in potential profits due to new EU restrictions on duty-free imports of agricultural products from Ukraine, which take into account the reduced imports from the second half of 2021.

EU ambassadors will again try to approve the extension of the duty-free trade agreement with Ukraine with a compromise proposal to increase restrictions on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products to balance support for Ukraine and protection of EU farmers.

Belgian Agriculture Minister David Clarinval reported progress in meeting the demands of angry European farmers, but said the EU should continue to seek all possible solutions to calm their concerns about problems such as high commodity prices, extreme weather and low agricultural income.

Hungary will not extend the ban on imports of honey from Ukraine, as the previous ban did not have a positive impact on prices in the local market and caused losses to companies exporting honey to the EU, said the country's Minister of Agriculture Istvan Nagy.

The European Union rejected Russia's attempts to link Ukraine to the recent terrorist attack in Moscow, urging Russia not to use the attack as a pretext for escalating aggression against Ukraine or internal repression.

The Belgian presidency of the EU Council is working to find a compromise framework for renewing autonomous trade measures for Ukraine, with Italy proposing to extend the protection provisions until 2021 but exclude wheat, reducing the benefits for Ukraine from the original €2 billion to €1. 54 billion.

The European Commission proposes to raise tariffs on imports of grains, oilseeds and processed products from Russia and Belarus to the EU to prevent market destabilization, combat exports of misappropriated Ukrainian grain and deprive Russia of revenues it uses to finance its war against Ukraine.

The European Union plans to circumvent the EU Treaty's ban on arms purchases from its budget in order to increase military aid to Ukraine.