In Kyiv on Feb. 21, Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen urged Ukraine to tackle corruption, including the establishment of an anti-corruption court by the time his nation hosts a Ukraine Reform Conference on June 27.
Samuelson and Ukrainian counterpart Pavlo Klimkin held a joint press conference. “We support Ukraine in its reform efforts, also by stressing that still more needs to be done,” the minister said.
Samuelsen announced a new Danish program worth 65 million euros in help to bolster Ukraine’s economy, democracy and human rights.
“Ukraine is one of the two priority countries under this program,” he said. The other country is the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
Denmark is hosting the international Ukraine Reform Conference in Copenhagen on June 27, taking over from the United Kingdom, which held a similar event in July.
European Union foreign ministers and representatives from NATO, G7 countries and international organizations will attend. More than 250 guests are expected to attend.
“Bring yourself in a position so that when we meet in Copenhagen, you can rightfully expect the international community to commend your efforts,” Samuelsen said a day earlier during a meeting with Ukraine’s Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman. “In my view, these should include the adoption of the law on an independent high anti-corruption court fully in line with the recommendations of the Venice Commission and substantial progress towards making the new court operational.”
The Copenhagen conference will be a good opportunity for Ukraine’s government to showcase its reform results as good governance, fight against corruption and economic development will be the main topics at the conference.
“Today is a particularly good day to remember what is at stake. It is exactly four years since the bloodiest day of the anti-government protests on Maidan, where more than a hundred people lost their lives for ‘the New Ukraine’ in the most brutal manner,” the minister said.
The minister also urged Ukraine to continue with economic reforms such as the privatization of its hundreds of state-owned companies that have been underperforming and used as a tool for stealing money.
And having an anti-corruption high court will help increase trade in Ukraine and attract foreign direct investment, the minister told the Kyiv Post.
“As soon as you are able to really fight the corruption… then you have a more secure framework and then automatically will attract more foreign direct investment to Ukraine.”
This will also increase Danish businesses in Ukraine.
“So in the next Copenhagen conference hopefully there will also be an opportunity to extend these connections between Danish companies and Ukraine,” Samuelsen said.
Samuelsen points that any country can be an economic power, even his own country with a population of nearly 6 million people and only 42,000 square kilometers, or only 1/14th of Ukraine’s land mass size and seven times fewer people.
“We are a small country and we do not have that many natural resources, so what we have learned by experience is that the only way to go forward to become a rich country is to trade.”
