For me, as a co-chair of the EU-Ukraine Civil Society Platform, it is necessary to restore and maintain the links between the members of the platform, who represent employers, workers and NGOs. At this crucial time, with the ongoing war in Ukraine, we must maintain contacts with the Ukrainian participants of the Civil Society Platform.

If we succeed in keeping vibrant links and ensure the functioning of the network, we can make progress on the priorities. For the time being, the principal objective should be to identify the practical needs of the Ukrainian people and see how we, as EU Civil Society Platform members, can assist our Ukrainian colleagues with acts of solidarity in this extremely difficult situation.

But I believe our most important task is helping with the integration of Ukrainian war refugees, as more than five million have fled to neighbouring and other European countries. Top of our agenda in the upcoming EU-Ukraine Civil Society Platform meeting should be the social and economic integration of Ukrainian refugees. We need to find ways to incorporate Ukrainian adults and children into the social and economic structure of the individual countries to help heal the trauma of the war. Of course, when the war is over, our next step will be to help these people integrate back into Ukraine.

We stand with the Ukrainian people and as the Civil Society Platform we express our full solidarity.

Veselin Mitov, EESC Member, co-chair of the EU-Ukraine Civil Society Platform