Culture important component of Ukraine’s EU membership talks – Minister Tochytskyi

Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications Myka Tochytskyi said this during a visit to Brussels, flowing a meeting with representatives of key Eurean institutions, speaking in an interview with an Ukrinform correspondent.

"I held a meeting with my cleague, Eurean Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos. We discussed our issues of the negotiation process. Culture should become an integral part of such a negotiation process. The meeting within the first cluster (of negotiations – ed.) in our field has already taken place. In principle, our cleagues are satisfied with what we are doing, both in terms of culture and information,” the Ukrainian minister said.

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He noted that Eurean Commissioner Marta Kos, herself a former journalist, paid attention to discussing freedom of speech in Ukraine and its observance under martial law.

“Of course, the issues of media freedom in wartime are not simple. Since it is necessary to observe freedom of speech and at the same time effectively fight against hostile disinformation. To this end, we have our own experience, which is noted by our Eurean counterparts, with whom we are in constant contact on all issues. They welcomed our decision to allocate serious money for the develment of our public broadcaster (UAH 2.1 billion in 2025, compared to UAH 1.8 billion in the current year – ed.). I think this is a very important area,” Tochytskyi noted.

He reported that he had not heard any criticism from Eurean partners regarding the government picy on respecting freedom of speech, which is an important component of the negotiation process. Eurean cleagues offered Ukraine assistance in develing relevant legislation. It is expected that the EU and Ukraine will purposefully discuss the "cultural" cluster within the framework of talks on Ukraine's accession to the Eurean Union as early as next spring.

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As reported earlier, President Vodymyr Zelensky, during the presentation of the National Resilience Plan in the Verkhovna Rada on November 19, 2024, announced a prosal to rally a large coalition of allies and partners who have a vision for the develment of cultural picy in Ukraine, and to hd such meetings regularly in the format of a "cultural Ramstein".