In a plenary debate on the Enlargement package 2023 – Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, our First Vice-President Władysław Ortyl highlighted that it is unfair to use candidate countries as a bargaining chip by tying their future to the issue of having to change the EU Treaties. "It is also wrong to create the impression that there is no alternative to changing the EU Treaties and that the only future is a more centralised union with a concentration of power in Brussels".

For the President of the Podkarpackie Region the alternative is a European Union of nation states enjoying the same rights and opportunities. "This is the only way to ensure a sense of ownership of the European project by all Member States, including those expected to join in the future", stated Marshal Ortyl. 

The debate was also an opportunity for Mr Ortyl to highlight Podkarpackie's initiative to organise training courses to prepare local authorities from partner regions in Ukraine to carry out tasks related to its bid to formally start negotiating its path towards the EU. 

The first training of the new format took place in the region in October 2023. It was tailored for the administration officers from the partner regions of Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Zakarpattia and Odessa as well as representatives of regional development agencies.

"We have secured a budget to continue training courses on preparatory tasks for the use of EU funds at all levels of the Ukrainian administration also this year", concluded our First Vice-President.