On October 17-19, 2018, the New Europe Center with the support of the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation of the GMF organized a Study Visit to Ukraine for a group of thought leaders from U.S. and the European Union. The purpose of this Study Visit was to better understand the current situation in Ukraine with a specific focus on reforms, security and the pre-election situation. It was the 11th Study Visit organized by the team of the New Europe Center since the beginning of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in 2014. In the past four years, New Europe Center brought about 200 thought leaders to Ukraine from various countries.
The group was composed by Richard Gowan, Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research at United Nations University (U.S.), Thomas Seifert, Editor-in-chief, Wiener Zeitung (Austria), Dimitar Bechev, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council (U.S. / Bulgaria), Eleonora Tafuro, Research Fellow on Russia, Caucasus and Central Asia Centre, Italian Institute for International Political Studies (Italy), Emmanuel Dupuy, President of the Institute of European Perspective & Security Studies (France), Florent Parmentier, Head of Policy Lab at Sciences Po (France), Christian Ferdinand Wehrschuetz, ORF Chief Correspondent / National Austrian TV and Radio, Correspondent at “Kleine Zeitung” (Austria), Daniel Szeligowski, Senior Research Fellow, Eastern Europe Programme, The Polish Institute of International Affairs (Poland), John Alexander, Program Assistant, German Marshall Fund of the United States (U.S.), Nicolas Bouchet, Research Fellow, Europe Program, German Marshall Fund of the United States (Germany), and Rachel Zissimos, Research Associate, National Security and Defense Studies at The Heritage Foundation (U.S.).
On October 17 the group of the Western thought leaders held a working dinner with Oleksandr Lytvynenko, Deputy Secretary, National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.
On the morning of October 18, the thought leaders discussed the reforms and the political situation in Ukraine during a breakfast discussion with Marie Yovanovitch, Ambassador of the United States of America to Ukraine, Ernst Reichel, Ambassador of German Federal Republic to Ukraine, Fabio Della Piazza, Head of Political Section, EU Delegation to Ukraine.
After that, Sokol Bega, Deputy Head of Reporting and Political Analysis Unit, OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, held a briefing on the security situation in the East of Ukraine for the participants of the Study Visit.
Then the representatives of foreign delegation had a working lunch with Andy Hunder, President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine.
Afterwards, participants of the Study Visit met with Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, Vice-Prime-Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine.
The first study visit day was concluded by the meeting with Artem Sytnyk, Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine.
On the morning of October 19, participants met with the representatives of the Ukrainian civil society: Yevhen Fedchenko, co-founder, StopFake, Anastasia Krasnosilska, advocacy manager at Anticorruption Action Center, and Olena Prokopenko, head of international relations at the Reanimation Package of Reforms.
After that the group held a meeting with Kostiantyn Yelisieiev, Foreign Policy Adviser of the President of Ukraine, Deputy Head of Presidential Administration.
Then, the Western opinion leaders had a working lunch with Ulyana Suprun, Acting Minister of Healthcare.
The final meeting of the second day of the Study Visit took place with the People’s Deputies of Ukraine: Hanna Hopko, Head of the parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Hryhoriy Nemyria, Head of Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations, Ostap Yednak, Committee on Environmental Protection.
The Study Visit ended with an excursion for the group to the Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square), during which, in particular, Western opinion leaders were told about the events that took place there during the Revolution of Dignity.
