European Commission, Signing ceremony, Brussels, 27 June 2014.
José Manuel Durão Barroso, President of the European Commission:
"Today, we are
signing Association Agreements between the European Union and three
important European countries: Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and
Ukraine. This is indeed a historic day: for the three countries
themselves, for the European Union and for the whole of Europe.
For our
three partners, it is a recognition of the significant progress made
over recent years and of their strong political determination to come
closer to the European Union; their shared outlook on a prosperous
economic model; and their desire to live by the European spirit and with
European values.
For the European Union, it is a solemn
commitment to support Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine,
each step of the way, along the road of transforming their countries
into stable, prosperous democracies.
These
Association Agreements are the logical and natural outcome of a path
started more than 20 years ago when these countries became independent
sovereign states.
These Agreements are also a landmark
in our Eastern Partnership policy that set the objective of achieving
political association and economic integration with our partners, who
were willing and ready to do so.
The
Agreements we are signing today are the most ambitious the European
Union has entered into so far. They will enable our partner countries to
drive reforms, to consolidate the rule of law and good governance; and
to give an impetus to economic growth in the region by granting access
to the world's largest internal market and by encouraging cooperation
across a wide range of sectors.
But let us
be under no illusion. The task ahead is substantial. The Association
Agreements' main objective is to help to deliver on the partner
countries' own reforms, own ambitions.
To succeed
will require strong political will. It will require effective
coordination within each of the partner governments. It will require
each of them to reach out to their parliaments, to opposition, to civil
society in order to build a national consensus in favour of the measures
required to guarantee a genuine and sustainable transformation. No
international agreement can ever replace the momentum and political
leadership within the country itself.
Key issues to address to make the
reform process successful and irreversible include reforming the
judiciary systems and public administration; improving efficiency and
transparency; and fighting corruption.
It is also
important to state that we are not seeking an exclusive relationship
with our three partners, with Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and
Ukraine. We believe in open societies, open economies, open regionalism.
These
Agreements are positive agreements. They are meant to add more momentum
to our partners' established international relations, not to compete
with - or intrude in - our partners' relations with any neighbour.
These Agreements are for something – they are not against anyone.
We are well
aware of our partners' aspirations to go further; and we acknowledge
their European choice. As we have stated before, these agreements do not
constitute the endpoint of the EU's cooperation with its partners.
Quite the opposite. Signing these
Association Agreements with Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas
should not be seen as the end of the road, but as the beginning of a
journey on which the European Union and these three partner countries
are embarking together today."
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-14-511_en.htm?locale=en
27/6/14
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