13th YES Annual Meeting: the headlines from day one

350 Heads of State, politicians, economists, thinkers, and business people are gathered at the historic Mystetskyi Arsenal in Kyiv, to discuss the storms of change facing the world, Europe and Ukraine.

During today’s conference, which focused on the stormy political, economic and geographic issues facing Ukraine, its neighbours and the wider global economy, attendees heard from a wide range of high-profile speakers including Petro Poroshenko, President of Ukraine, Jose Manuel Barroso, former President of the European Commission and former Prime Minister of Portugal, Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice-President for the Euro and Social Dialogue, also in charge of Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, European Commission; and Prime Minister of Latvia (2009-2014), and David M. Axelrod, Chief Strategist and Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama (2009- 2011).

Opening the meeting, Victor Pinchuk, founder and member of the board of YES, said, “The crisis in Ukraine is global and its solution should be a priority among global leaders’ objectives.” He also stressed that only with joint global effort can the storm be averted, prior to turning over to the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko.

The President reiterated Mr Pinchuk’s message and elaborated on what Ukraine expects from its global partners to help it meet its goals. He said that what Ukraine needs, above all, is a display of unity and solidarity from its global partners, and went on, “It is time to understand that there is no longer a comfort zone where one can find safe haven from global challenges and threats.

“This comfort zone simply does not exist. When one state is trying to seize a part of another state’s sovereign territory, this must be a concern for all European states, for the whole of global civilisation. Because it is clear that no-one can guarantee that tomorrow someone will not try to do this with another state,” he said.

The President went on to stress that Ukraine will not make any further moves on the Minsk Agreement until it sees movement from Russia towards meeting its obligations. “We have a very simple requirement: Russia must ensure a sustainable and comprehensive ceasefire in Donbass,” he said.

Some of the other headlines coming out of the day’s debates were:

• The next step in bringing Turkey closer to the EU should be to open Chapters 23 and 24 of the Articles of Association, dealing with the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary.
  Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations
  
  
• Ukraine hopes that Volodymyr Zhemchugov, a political prisoner of the Kremlin, will be released on Saturday 17 September.
  President Petro Poroshenko
  
  
• Ukraine has satisfied the 144 criteria for the liberalization of the visa regime with European Union states and received a positive recommendation from the commission that visa liberalisation be effected by the end of 2016.
  President Petro Poroshenko and Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice-President for the Euro and Social Dialogue, also in charge of Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, European Commission
  
  
• The decision to declare a war on terror was incorrect, terrorism is a human tactic, it appeared when people appeared on earth. There was as much terror at the beginning of the 19th century as now….Terrorism has to be controlled in a way that allows other people in society to continue living without changing their life or their behaviour.
  Robert Gates, Former Director of the CIA, and US former Defence Minister
  
  
• Ukraine is undergoing deep transformation. It has recently introduced more reforms than any other European country.
  Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commission Vice President for the Euro, Social Dialogue and Financial Stability

You can find out more about the discussions behind these at: http://yes-ukraine.org/en/news

You can also view a live stream of the event here: http://yes-ukraine.org/en/live

The official Twitter of the 13th YES Annual Meeting is @yes_ukraine, and participants and followers can include the hashtag: #YESUkraine2016.