Ukraine needs to promote, improve the image and lobby of its interests in Europe. This idea was expressed in interview to The Journalist by the founder of the project «Promote Ukraine» Marta Barandiy, who arrived in Ukraine from Brussels.
«I am engaged in promotion of Ukraine abroad since 2014. Then against backdrop of events of EuroMaidan and war, we, like-minded people, established an organization whose purpose is to lobby the interests of Ukraine in Europe. We realized that the countries of Europe do not receive the proper information about Ukraine, and the information they receive is pro-Russian, that is, from Russian English-language sources. Therefore, I decided to interfere in this process with the team of like-minded people and create information, political, cultural and business-related projects to improve bilateral relations between Ukraine and European Union, in particular Belgium», said Marta Barandiy.
According to her, the image of our state in Europe is better than it was before 2014, but now the situation is not improving because of information about failures in fight against corruption and low reform pace.
«Significant role was played by the fact that Ukraine received visa liberalization. Now many Europeans consider our state part of European Union. There is a definite positive. However, the image of Ukraine as such is formed weakly and point-wise. Something does Ministry of Foreign Affairs, something does Ministry of Economics, but most of the work is performed by public organizations», said the founder of the project «Promote Ukraine».
Anna Krysyiuk, General Director of Business WOMAN magazine, said during meeting with Marta Barandiy and other Ukrainian businesswomen at office of East West Mentor, that the purpose of such events is not only exchange of experience and expansion of export-import activities of Ukraine abroad, but and the development of a strategy for international PR and lobbying Ukraine’s interests in EU.
«Our partner, which is one of the best lobbyists of our state in Belgium and Europe, came to our Ukrainian-Hungarian company East West Mentor. It implements many projects that help popularize Ukraine abroad in the social, cultural, educational and even business sectors. Therefore, we invited Marta to share her experience, meet with our partners in Ukraine, with officials, businessmen, public figures, in order to find common ground for future common cooperation. In addition, East West Mentor Ua together with East West Mentor and its owner Zoltan Horvath has global plans to expand not only export-import activities, but also international PR and lobbying of Ukrainian interests in Europe, and seeks to help Ukrainian business to enter European market», – said Anna Krysiuk.
During the meeting, women, who are representatives of the Ukrainian business sector, discussed plans for the near future and projects they plan to soon implement in the EU. In particular, the participants of the event discussed conference, which will soon take place in European Parliament, in order to draw the attention of the international community to problem of Crimean Tatars. Businesswoman also shared her thoughts on EUROWOMAN project, designed to attract influential women who are specialists in a particular industry, to promote Ukraine’s interests in EU, and also paid attention to the issue of an information campaign that provides information to European officials, members of the European Parliament and the international community on developments in the Ukraine.
To know more, see video version of the interview on the website of The Journalist.
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