Sweden presents High Level Advisory Group to assist in Ukraine’s accession negotiations

Sweden is launching a High Level Advisory Group to provide expert support to the Government of Ukraine in its accession process. This was officially announced by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden Tobias Billström during his address at the Forum “European Integration of Ukraine, its Regions and Territorial Communities” within the framework of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities under the President of Ukraine.

“Sweden continues to support Ukraine on its path to EU accession, and I am proud to announce that we have just launched together with our nordic baltic partners, a high level advisory group that will help pave the way for Ukraine’s EU membership. We have gathered the most senior experts from the nordic baltic countries who will give strategic input to Ukraine in its EU accession. All experts have first hand experience from the EU structures and the EU accession processes of their respective countries. While you remain the most important players doing the work on the ground, we look forward to helping bring you closer to EU membership”, the Minister said. 

He also stated that Sweden will continue its support for Ukraine to win this war, continue its decentralization and eventually become an EU member.

“We highly appreciate the support and engagement of the partners on our road to EU membership. Despite the challenges of the full-scale war, we are actively working on preparing for the forthcoming negotiation talks, strengthening our capacities, and deepening integration with the EU. We welcome Swedish leadership to launch an initiative that gathers the best expertise of Nordic-Baltic states to assist Ukraine’s European integration efforts. I eagerly anticipate a productive collaboration,” stated Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, in response to the commencement of the initiative.

The key goal of the initiative is to support Ukraine’s accession to the EU. The Group includes professional representatives of the Nordic Baltic Eight countries (Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Sweden, Iceland, and Finland) who have extensive experience in EU institutions and have been involved in the negotiation process.

In particular, they are Alar Streimann, negotiator in the EU accession negotiations with Estonia; Algirdas Šemeta, former European Commissioner and twice Minister of Finance of Lithuania; Andris Piebalgs, former European Commissioner and Latvian diplomat; Cecilia Malmström, former European Commissioner, Minister for EU Affairs of Sweden (2006-2010); Högni S. Kristjánsson, Icelandic diplomat, Director for European Affairs and EU accession negotiator (2008-2013); Katarina Areskoug, Secretary of State for EU and International Affairs of Sweden (2010-2014); Laimonas Čiakas, former Director General of the National Land Service of Lithuania (2017-2021); Marja Rislakki, former Permanent Representative of Finland to the EU (2017-2021); Stefán Haukur Jóhannesson, Chief Negotiator for Iceland’s accession to the EU (2009-2013).

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The group’s activities will be coordinated by the National Board of Trade Sweden, a Swedish government agency founded in 1651 that deals with international trade, the internal market and EU trade policy.