KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s top official for Europe says the war-torn country is on an “irreversible” course of Western integration after the European Union agreed to formally start entry negotiations this week.
The decision to launch accession talks this week is a “big day” for her country, Olga Stefanishyna, the deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, said.
“This is the utmost will of the Ukrainian people. And this is the irreversibility. And you’ve seen Ukrainians stand up for their choice,” Stefanishyna said, speaking in Kyiv Sunday.
It was her first interview since being appointed chief negotiator for EU accession.
EU member countries agreed Friday to start entry talks with Ukraine and Moldova – overcoming vocal opposition from Hungary which takes over the EU’s rotating presidency on July 1. The process of joining varies for each country but could take years. Turkey started its accession talks almost two decades ago and is still waiting for full membership.
Stefanishyna will head the opening of the accession talks in Luxembourg Tuesday, joined by several top government officials. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to give a speech at the launch ceremony, but Stefanishyna did not elaborate whether he would do so in person or online.
Zelenskyy described Friday’s decision as a “historic step,” adding in an online post: “Generations of our people are realizing their European dream. Ukraine is returning to Europe.
A survey of opinion polling by the European Parliament earlier this year suggested that EU citizens broadly back Ukraine’s membership bid but are less supportive of fast-tracking the process.
Ukraine, Stefanishyna said, was not seeking special treatment.
“Ukraine is moving fast,” she said, “without skipping any elements of the process (and) without asking (for) any discount.”
Russia has used economic pressure and ultimately military force to try and reverse the aspirations of its former Soviet neighbor to join Western alliances it regards as hostile.
Deadly protests a decade ago to demand that the government stick to a pledge to forge closer ties with the EU put the country on a collision course with Russia.
“It’s a big day for everybody,” said Stefanishyna, who frequently showed emotion while describing the integration process. “It has been around two years since Ukraine applied for membership. The war is still raging on, but the accession is starting right now.”
Stefanishyna, a 38-year-old lawyer who has worked in civil service and government positions since her early twenties, will lead Ukraine’s 35-member delegation for negotiations with the EU.
In 2019, Ukraine changed its constitution to include those aspirations and formally applied to join the EU on Feb. 28, 2022 – five days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
Bordering EU members Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, Ukraine would overtake France to become the largest member of the bloc if it joined, shifting its center of gravity further eastward.
Together with Moldova, it’s in a long line with other candidates – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey – some with membership aspirations spanning decades.
Ukraine is hoping to join by 2030.
While praised for making progress since its application, Ukraine must carry out dozens of institutional and legal reforms required for membership. The daunting list is led by steps to combat corruption, and includes broad reforms to public administration, the judiciary, and market rules.
More than 1000 people in Ukraine are already involved in the accession process which will proceed without a summer break.
“The next half a year will be crucial for our key negotiators,” she said, adding that Ukraine needs to come up with a clear reform roadmap.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Olga Stefanishyna, Ukraine's deputy prime minister, poses for a picture during an interview with The Associated Press in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, June 23, 2024. Ukraine’s top official for Europe, Stefanishyna, says the war-torn country is on an “irreversible” course of Western integration after the European Union agreed to formally start entry negotiations this week. (AP Photo/Alex Babenko)
Olga Stefanishyna, Ukraine's deputy prime minister, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, June 23, 2024. Ukraine’s top official for Europe, Stefanishyna, says the war-torn country is on an “irreversible” course of Western integration after the European Union agreed to formally start entry negotiations this week. (AP Photo/Alex Babenko)
ATLANTA (AP) — Jail officials in Georgia's most populous county are violating the constitutional rights of people in their custody by failing to protect them from violence, using excessive force and holding them in filthy and unsafe conditions, U.S. Justice Department officials said Thursday.
The Fulton County Sheriff's Office doesn't adequately protect jail detainees from violence by other detainees, including stabbings, sexual abuse and killings, federal officials contend in a lengthy report that details alleged abuses and offers remedial actions that can be taken. Vulnerable populations, including people who are gay, transgender, young or who have serious mental illness, are particularly at risk from the violence, which causes physical injury and long-lasting trauma, the report says.
“Our investigation finds longstanding, unconstitutional, unlawful and dangerous conditions that jeopardize the lives and well-being of the people held there,” Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for civil rights, said at a news conference in Atlanta.
The report resulted from a federal investigation launched in July 2023 to examine living conditions, access to medical and mental health care, use of excessive force by staff, and conditions that may give rise to violence between people held in jails in the county, which includes most of Atlanta.
Federal authorities cited the September 2022 death of 35-year-old Lashawn Thompson in a bedbug-infested cell in the Fulton County Jail’s psychiatric wing, noting that an independent autopsy conducted at his family’s request found that he died of severe neglect. Photos released by attorneys for Thompson’s family showed that his body was covered in insects and that his cell was filthy and full of garbage.
Two other people in the same mental health unit died in the weeks following Thompson's death. Both were killed by their cellmates and found with their feet bound, the report states.
“We cannot turn a blind eye to the inhumane, violent and hazardous conditions that people are subjected to inside the Fulton County Jail,” Clarke said. “Detention in the Fulton County Jail has amounted to a death sentence for dozens of people who have been murdered or who've died as a result of the atrocious conditions inside the facility.”
Assaults and stabbings with “shanks” are “a feature of life" at the jail, the report states, noting that there were 1,054 assaults and 314 stabbings in 2023. In some cases, officers have allowed or initiated the violence, and many attacks go unreported or are not properly documented.
Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat, who took office in 2021 and was reelected last week, has consistently raised concerns about overcrowding, dilapidated infrastructure and staffing shortages at county lockups. He has pushed county leaders to build a new jail, which they have so far been unwilling to do.
The sheriff's office didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment about the report's findings.
Although county leaders and the sheriff's office are aware of the violence and have publicly spoken out against it, “they have failed to take adequate action to address the crisis, and homicides, stabbings, and other violent acts continue at dangerous levels,” according to the report.
Clarke noted that the report provides basic remedial actions and said the Justice Department is ready to work with the county to address the problems identified.
“I'm hopeful at the end of the day that Fulton County can put in place the reforms, measures and best practices necessary so that it might stand as a model for other institutions across the country,” she said.
Ryan Buchanan, the U.S. attorney in Atlanta, said the problems affect a large percentage of people in county custody and noted that the rate of assaults at Fulton County Jail outpaces that in other major city jails by a nearly two-to-one ratio. An overwhelming majority of those in custody are in pretrial detention and have not been convicted of a crime.
“The most obvious casualties of the civil rights violations occurring in the jail are those who leave the jail in body bags,” he told reporters. “But our investigation has revealed hundreds more injured, traumatized and dehumanized people, all of whom are just as deserving of the protections of the Constitution as all of us in this room.”
The “crisis of violence” in the Fulton County Jail is due in part to a lack of an effective classification system. resulting in a extremely violent people and gang members being housed with vulnerable and low-risk people, he said.
Jail officers “have a pattern or practice of using excessive force” against people in county custody, the report says. Officers do not receive adequate training and guidance on the use of force, they use Tasers too frequently and in “an unreasonable, unsafe manner,” and staff who use excessive force are not consistently disciplined, it states.
Fulton County has a main jail and three annexes, and investigators found that the main jail is hazardous and unsanitary, citing flooding from broken toilets and sinks, infestations of cockroaches and rodents, and filthy cells with dangerous exposed wires. There isn't enough food for detainees and the distribution services are unsanitary, the report says. That leaves detainees exposed to pest infestation, malnourishment and other harms, investigators contend.
People held in Fulton County custody receive inadequate medical and mental health care in violation of their constitutional rights, leaving them open to risk of injury, serious illness, pain and suffering, mental health decline and death, the report states.
People with serious mental illness are routinely held in restrictive housing that exposes them to risk of serious harm, including self-injury, physical decline and acute mental illness, the report says.
The jurisdiction of the juvenile justice system in Georgia ends at age 16, so 17-year-olds are housed in county jails. They are held in restrictive housing with little time outside of their cells, leaving them susceptible to the onset of mental illness, depression and an increased risk of suicide, the report says.
Included in the report are 11 pages of “minimum remedial measures” that jail officials should implement. It ends with a warning that federal authorities could take legal action if concerns are not sufficiently addressed.
A Georgia state Senate committee formed last year to examine jail conditions in Fulton County concluded in August that county officials needed to do more to work together to address problems at the jail. It also called on the city of Atlanta to hand over all of its former jail to the county to house prisoners.
FILE - The Fulton County Jail is shown, April 11, 2023, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Kate Brumback, File)
