Alona Lebedieva, the owner of the Ukrainian industrial and investment group of companies Aurum Group, took part in a discussion on the economic prospects of Europe within the framework of the European Business Summit, which took place in Brussels from November 28 to 29.
“We see an EU strategy aimed at supporting the stability of both member states within and around it. That is, if my partner or neighbor feels bad, I feel bad,” Alona Lebedieva said.
“With the start of a full-scale war, Ukrainians felt unprecedented support from the EU. We finally felt like not only your neighbor, but also a part of the European community, for which we are always grateful, and we hope to become a part of the European Union in the near future,” said Alona Lebedieva.
As part of the discussion, Alona Lebedieva raised the issue of contradictions that arise within the EU regarding support for Ukraine: “In addition to heated debates and contradictions regarding new packages of sanctions, the provision of military aid – which everyone knows about, I want to give a fresh example: due to the blocking of checkpoints on the border with Ukraine by Polish carriers, more than 3,500 trucks are currently in queues. According to experts, the economy of Ukraine has already suffered losses of more than 400 million euros. In addition, there are risks for the health and life of the drivers themselves. The trucks have been standing for 2 weeks, and 2 deaths have already been recorded, – explained Alona Lebedieva, – Thanks to the efforts of journalists, it became known that the organizer of the strike was Rafal Mekler – a representative of the branch of the “Confederation of Freedom and Independence” party in the Lublin Voivodeship. The pro-Russian party, whose members are against Ukrainian integration into the European Union.“
“That is, on the one hand, everyone is well aware that as long as Poland remains without a new government, as long as there is a strong confrontation between the ruling party and the coalition, there will be many contradictions in Poland itself. However, the border of Ukraine and Poland is the border of our state and the European Union, and there can be no contradiction,” Lebedieva stressed.
At the same time, according to the owner of Aurum Group Alona Lebedieva, such a situation violates the principles of international cooperation and a number of agreements: “Such protests violate the fundamental principles of many documents, agreements and efforts of international organizations, such as GATT (ed. – General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), of the World Trade Organization, the Convention of the World Customs Organization, etc., because they impede free transit, and also violate the basic security principles of providing military support and humanitarian aid.“
It will be recalled that on November 6, Polish carriers began to block the movement of trucks at the checkpoints “Krakivets-Korchova”, “Yagodin-Dorogusk” and “Rava-Ruska-Grebenne”. On November 26, it became known that there are cases of blocking of humanitarian aid on the border with Poland.
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