The new president of the European Council, António Costa, began his mandate this Sunday with a trip to kyiv to show the “unwavering” support of the European Union for Ukraine, together with the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas, and the European Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos. “From the first day of the war, the EU has been on Ukraine’s side. From the first day of our mandate, we reaffirm our unwavering support for the Ukrainian people,” Costa said in a message on social networks upon arriving in kyiv, where he declared himself “proud” to be alongside Kallas and Kos.
Kallas also considered it a “privilege” to be in kyiv with Costa and Kos on her first visit to the Ukrainian capital as the new head of European diplomacy.
“My message is clear: the European Union wants Ukraine to win this war. We will do whatever it takes to achieve it,” said the former Estonian prime minister in another message on social networks.
The message that the three bring to the authorities in kyiv is “powerful: Ukraine, you can count on the firm and unwavering support of Europe on your path towards freedom, peace and a fully European future,” added Kos, for whom it is a “honor” to begin his new mission in the Ukrainian capital.
This visit of high symbolic value occurs on the same day that Costa’s mandate as the new president of the European Council officially begins and the new European Commission of Ursula von der Leyen’s second term also opens.
“We all long for peace. Especially the troubled and heroic Ukrainian people. But peace cannot mean the peace of a cemetery. Peace cannot mean capitulation. Peace should not reward the aggressor. Peace in Ukraine must be fair, lasting and based on international law,” Costa said at the handover ceremony with his predecessor, Charles Michel, last Friday in Brussels.
The Portuguese social democrat then pointed out that “this war is taking place on European soil, but the universal principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations are at stake: the right of peoples to self-determination, the right of nations to choose their own future. and respect for territorial integrity and state borders.”
For this reason, he said, “we must write a new chapter of the European Union as a peace project. Becoming stronger, more efficient, more resilient and more autonomous in terms of security and defense. Always working for a solid transatlantic partnership.”
For Costa, enlargement to the Western Balkans and eastern neighboring countries, such as Ukraine, is “a powerful tool for peace, security and prosperity, and a geopolitical imperative.”
“Both the European Union and the candidate countries must work harder and faster, without artificial deadlines, but also without undue obstacles,” considered the Portuguese.
During his hearing in the European Parliament on November 12, Kallas pointed to the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East as “urgent priorities” for his next five years at the head of European diplomacy and warned of the threats posed by Russia, China, Korea of the North and Iran.
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