OREANDA-NEWS. On December 10, 2008 During his Brussels’ visit the MES Minister Volodymyr Shandra met with President of the Eurounion’s Committee of the Regions Luke Van der Brande.

In the course of meeting the Minister stressed that today Ukraine sees as of extremely importance a problem of utilization of excessive ammunition. V.Shandra set an example of a unique operation in liquidation of ammunition on the territory of the 275 artillery base in the village of Novobohdanivka of Zaporizhzhya region which had been completed by the Ministry of Emergencies a week ago.

According to the Ukrainian top official nowadays Ukraine is interested in applying the EU assistance in implementation of projects of utilization of excessive and outdated ammunition.

Volodymyr Shandra and Luke Van der Brande also dwelt upon the EU Eastern Partnership Initiative aired on December 3 of the current year. According to the Ukrainian Minister, August events in Caucasus are vivid demonstration of the fact the EU should play a more active stabilizing role in the region, strengthening the security, stability, facilitating to economic growth and spread of common European values. “The best way to achieve this goal is to reinforce the integration format of such cooperation basing on European identity and Eurointegration aspirations of the EU neighbouring states,” V.Shandra urged.

The MES Minister of Ukraine and the President of the EU Committee of the Regions expressed common thought: the proposed projects of the Eastern Partnerhsip as a significant supplementary instrument of realization of Eurointegration aspirations of Ukraine will actively be applied in bilateral cooperation.

Moreover, during the meeting with the Director for Europe, South- Mediterranean, Middle-East and Neighbourhood Policy of the European Committee Marcus Cornaro Volodymyr Shandra expressed his gratitude to the Eurocommission for fruitful cooperation in the nuclear safety area.
The parties have also discussed leading role of Ukraine among the other EU states-partners in realization of the new Program of Eurocommission on prevention, readiness and response to the emergency situations of natural and man-caused character.

“Cooperation between MES of Ukraine and the EC is a long-term undertaking and bears a number of positive results, in particular in the issues of adopting the National Strategy of Radioactive Waste Handling, removal from exploitation the Chornobyl NPS, transformation of the Shelter facility into an environmentally friendly system and launch of the Program on social economic rehabilitation of radioactively contaminated territories,” Marcus Cornaro stressed.

Volodymyr Shandra emphasized in his turn: “Ukraine highly appreciates the fact that the European Union has made the most valuable contribution to the Chornobyl fund Ukryttya (the Shelter) and appeared one of the largest donors of the Nuclear Safety Account”. According to the Minister these projects are significant for the Ukrainian side not only as the component of international cooperation in the context of laying the ChNPS off but as one of the objectives of Ukraine-EU Cooperation Action Plan.