Thursday, May 21, 2015

Eastern Partnership summit begins in Riga

The leaders of the European Union, as well as Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Belarus and Armenia will meet on May 21-22 in Riga to attend the 4th Summit of Eastern Partnership.
On Thursday, after the official welcoming ceremony the heads of states and governments will take part in a working dinner hosted by the leadership of Latvia.
The summit will be chaired by President of the European Council Donald Tusk. The EU will also be represented by President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini and other European commissioners.
Ukrainian delegation will be headed by President Petro Poroshenko.
Intense negotiations on the content of the final variant of general summit's declaration are still continued. Ukraine insists on the most ambitious content of the document, including the parties' obligations to deepen political association and economic integration, provide the European perspective to the state, and identify the specific time frame for introducing a visa-free regime with the EU, subject to certain criteria.

The draft document also clearly states the obligation of the parties to start implementation of a deep and comprehensive the EU-Ukraine free trade area from January 1, 2016.
During the summit a Memorandum of Understanding, regarding the allocation of next macro-financial assistance package worth EUR 1.8 billion to Kyiv, will be signed by the Ukrainian government and the European Commission.

No comments:

Post a Comment