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4th Germany Breakfast Debate in Kyiv: “What is the state of German-Ukrainian relations? Voices from the German Bundestag and the Verkhovna Rada”.

Bilateral cooper­ation between Germany and Ukraine has steadily inten­sified since the Revolution of Dignity in 2014 and the subse­quent military aggression by the Russian Feder­ation. This is reflected, among other things, in the estab­lishment of new insti­tu­tions, such as the Ukraine Task Force AA or the appointment of Georg Milbradt, former governor of Saxony, as Special Advisor on the Ukrainian reform agenda, who is partic­u­larly committed to the decen­tral­i­sation process. Despite the successes of recent years and some very positive signals at the last EU-Ukraine summit in October 2020, it would be wrong to say that there is not also cause for concern. If the Ukrainian government does not manage to implement effective measures against the still widespread corruption and to strengthen the rule of law, the Ukrainian government’s commitment to the reform agenda will suffer a loss of credibility.

The guests of the 4th Germany Breakfast Debate on October 29, 2020, discussed perspec­tives on the current devel­opment of German-Ukrainian cooper­ation with Galyna Yanchenko (Sluha Narodu), the Co-Chair of the Ukrainian-German Parlia­mentary Group in the Verkhovna Rada, and Omid Nouripour (Bündnis 10/DIE GRÜNEN), the Chairman of the German-Ukrainian Parlia­mentary Group in the German Bundestag.

We were partic­u­larly happy about the partic­i­pation of the German Ambas­sador in Kyiv, Anka Feldhusen, under whose patronage the Germany Breakfast Debates are held. In a short speech at the beginning of the event she stressed the impor­tance of exchange formats such as the Breakfast Debates for bilateral relations. Just one day before, the Ukrainian Consti­tu­tional Court had declared a number of anti-corruption laws invalid –­ another sign that the exchange between German and Ukrainian parlia­men­tarians should definitely be continued via online events like this one to increase mutual knowledge and understanding.

After a brief overview of the current situation by Katrin Böttger, director at the IEP, and the welcome address by Sergiy Solodkyy from the partner organ­i­sation New Europe Center (NEC), the discussion began with an insight into the prior­ities of parlia­mentary cooper­ation. The central topic remains Russia’s aggression in Eastern Ukraine. What is asked of Germany is not only solidarity and engagement in the Normandy format, but also an active discussion about the status of Crimea – silence is only helping to normalise the situation. On the other hand, Germany could learn a lot from the Ukrainian experience in terms of the dissem­i­nation of fake news and hybrid warfare. Not only in terms of the relations with Russia, but also in its inter­action with Belarus.

Germany is currently one of Ukraine’s most important trading partners. However, the nucleus of the need for reform is and remains corruption in the country. In order to expand economic cooper­ation and persuade German companies to relocate their production capac­ities to Ukraine, the investment climate must be sustainably improved. The recently passed verdict of the Consti­tu­tional Court, which among other things prevents the criminal prose­cution of tax evasion by civil servants was not only a false signal to the outside world, but also the reversal of six years of work in the fight against corruption.

Questions from the audience mainly concerned sanctions against Russia and the extent to which the Navalny case could poten­tially impact the North Stream 2 project. The further the construction progresses, the less likely it is that the pipeline, which has become a real political issue, will be stopped. Other points of discussion were Germany’s historical respon­si­bility and the associated moral and financial oblig­a­tions towards Ukraine as well as the role of the German-Ukrainian Historical Commission, for which the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry recently withdrew its support. At the end of the debate, not only the results of the Ukrainian local elections were discussed, but also the potential conse­quences of the outcome of the US elections for Ukraine.


The Germany Breakfast Debates are part of the project “German Ukrainian Researchers Network” (GURN). GURN aims at estab­lishing a German-Ukrainian research network for junior and senior researchers and their organ­i­sa­tions, strength­ening country expertise and promoting joint cooper­ation projects. GURN is conducted in close cooper­ation with the Ilko Kucheriv Democ­ratic Initia­tives Foundation (DIF, Kyiv), the think tank devel­opment and research initiative think twice UA (Kyiv), the New Europe Center (NEC, Kyiv) and is kindly supported by the Federal Foreign Office.