Door still open to Ukraine on trade pact – Merkel
“I don’t have any hope that it will happen this time but the door is open,” Merkel said on arrival in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, where EU leaders were due to hold a summit with countries in eastern Europe and southern Caucasus.
Before Ukraine’s surprise change of heart, the EU had said it could sign a trade deal with Kyiv at the summit, which starts later on Thursday.
EU benefits more from economic integration deal than Ukraine
The European Union will benefit more than Ukraine after signing the European Union Association Agreement and creation of a free-trade area, Viktor Suslov, permanent representative of Ukraine in the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) says.
“There were a lot of talks about all the benefits that Ukraine can receive after signing the European Union Association Agreement, but the analysis was not complete, because one didn’t talk about all the benefits that the EU may receive. Deeper analysis shows that the EU could get more significant benefits,” Viktor Suslov said this Thursday during a round-table discussion session.
He also noted that the creation of a free-trade area and import duties abolition has always been beneficial for a more competitive economy. That’s why this creates a real threat of Ukrainian producers losing a competitive edge with European producers in the conditions of a free-trade area. This could stop thousands of factories and lead to mass unemployment in Ukraine.
“The European Union will enlarge its foreign market, while Ukraine will lose its domestic market. A free-trade area should be created between two relatively equal economies,” Suslov added.
EU open to discussing possible impact of agreement with Ukraine on its neighbors bilaterally – European Commissioner Fule
The European Union is prepared to discuss aspects of an association agreement with Ukraine, including its possible impact on its relations with its neighbors, only bilaterally with Kyiv, says European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule.
“We are committed to respecting the sovereignty and independence of our Eastern Partners and the bilateral nature of the Association Agreements/DCFTAs. If our Ukrainian partners have any concerns about possible impact of AA on its neighbors, we are happy to discuss it with our Ukrainian partners and see how their concerns can be addressed,” Fule said in an interview when asked whether the EU was prepared to consider the possibility of tripartite consultations on the matter with Ukraine and Russia.
“We remain convinced that the Eastern Partnership and the Association Agreements/DCFTAs are not a zero sum game – the EU, our partners and third parties stand to gain substantially from it,” Fule said.
“We have already explained this also to Russia and are ready to elaborate on the beneficial impact of increased trade and exchanges among neighbors,” he said.
EU’s Eastern Partnership summit underway in Vilnius amid ‘music protest’
Vilnius is hosting a two-day Eastern Partnership summit, bringing together the heads of states or governments of the 28 EU member states. This summit was expected to mark the signing of a historic agreement to expand a free trade zone between the EU and Ukraine. But Kyiv suspended the deal last week, bringing Ukraine into a protest chaos. Voice of Russia correspondent Ksenia Melnikova reports from Vilnius.
So we just heard the sound of Kyiv’s main Square. How is it going in Vilnius today?
Now there are new protests in Vilnius. At 7 pm when the EU members will meet in front of the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, there will be a protest of the local policemen and firemen who are not pleased with low wages and the absence of social guarantees. And it will be a musical protest. For this protest the members of the Trade Union have already chosen the music, and it will be an opera by Verdi called Nabucco, the Aria of the Slaves.
After Ukraine has refused to sign the association agreement with the European Union, how did the agenda of the summit change? Do we know anything about that?
After a kind of feeler with Ukraine Brussels says that the agenda of the summit is the following – visa facilitation agreement with Azerbaijan, and a framework agreement on Georgia’s participation in EU crisis management missions are expected to be signed at the summit. And aviation agreement with Ukraine is also supposed to be signed. Georgia and Moldova are going to initial association agreements. This is the summit’s agenda.
Voice of Russia, Reuters, Interfax, TASS, Kyiv Post
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