During the summit it is planned to determine future steps of cooperation with the countries of the EU Eastern Partnership. The EU leaders will also assess the preliminary progress in implementing the Association Agreements with three countries - Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, as well as the state of cooperation with Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus.
On the eve of the summit, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced that the EU was ready to provide EUR 1.8 billion in macro-financial assistance to Ukraine, Ukrainian news broadcaster TSN reported. In addition, Poroshenko is expecting a clear decision from the EU on a visa-free regime for Ukraine, in addition to a list of tasks Kyiv has to fulfill to open the EU’s borders for Ukrainian citizens. Another important issue is confirmation of the prospects for Ukraine’s eventual membership of the EU.
The major breakthrough Ukraine is expecting from the summit is a visa liberalization process. On the eve of Riga summit, Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said that the main outcome of the summit for Ukraine should be a clear signal from the EU regarding the date of the visa-free regime’s introduction, according to Radio Liberty.
Last week, the European Commission published a report on implementation of the conditions for obtaining a visa-free regime by Ukraine, which made it clear that the summit would not live up to Ukraine’s expectations, as it has not yet fulfilled all the necessary conditions. However, Brussels does not rule out the possibility of receiving a visa-free regime as early as in 2016 - provided Ukraine meets all the requirements.
The Eastern Partnership Summit will be the first such meeting after the Vilnius Summit held in November 2013, at which former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych announced the postponement of the signing of Ukraine’s Association Agreement with the EU. That event led directly to mass public protests in Ukraine which, after several months, led to the ousting of the Yanukovych government.
The Eastern Partnership initiative is a program launched by the EU in 2009 and covering 6 countries: Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Azerbaijan and Armenia. The program is aimed at deepening cooperation with those countries in various spheres - political association, free trade zones, and visa liberalization.
unian.info
21/5/15
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EU Riga summit 'not against Russia', Merkel says...
ReplyDeleteEU leaders are gathering for a summit with six former Soviet states in Latvia, overshadowed by Russia's role in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
The EU's Eastern Partnership "is not an instrument for pursuing an expansionist EU policy", German Chancellor Angela Merkel said ahead of the summit.
The partnership "is not directed against anyone, it's not against Russia", she said.
But Russia cannot yet rejoin the G7 group of leading nations, she added.
"So long as Russia does not comply with basic common values, a return to the G8 format is not imaginable for us." The G7 - grouping top industrialised nations - meets in Elmau, southern Germany, next month.
Russia is exerting pressure on ex-Soviet states to join a Moscow-led "Eurasian Union".
A far-reaching EU-Ukraine association agreement angered Russia.
The Ukraine crisis erupted after the last Eastern Partnership summit, in Lithuania in November 2013. That was when former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych - an ally of Russia - refused to sign the association agreement, in an abrupt reversal of policy.
He fled from Kiev in February 2014 amid vast anti-government protests in which more than 100 people died.
The pro-Western government, formed after fresh elections, signed the association agreement, but the crucial free trade part of it was suspended until January 2016 so that Russian concerns about it could be addressed.
"It's not 'either or' - partnership or not - so we are ready to talk about worries over the economic association with Ukraine," Mrs Merkel told the Bundestag - the lower house of the German parliament.
But she stressed that it was each partner state's "sovereign decision if they want to forge close ties... nobody has a right to block that path"....BBC
21/5/15
Second day of EU summit starts in Riga with differences over declaration wording
ReplyDeleteOfficials at the EU’s Eastern Partnership summit in Riga, Latvia were reported to be still haggling over the wording of the summit’s final declaration as of 0800 on Friday, with some participants objecting to the summit position on Crimea...
A senior European diplomat told a UNIAN correspondent that there is an ongoing debate about the position of Belarus and Armenia regarding a certain phrase in the declaration text - "illegal annexation of Crimea," - and between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the position on the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The plenary session of the summit was scheduled for 0900, and it was expected that during the meeting Ukraine and the European Union could sign a memorandum of understanding on allocation of EUR 1.8 billion in macro-financial assistance for Ukraine.
The summit will end in the second half of the day with a press conference of the President of the European Council Donald Tusk, President of European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, and Prime Minister of Latvia Laimdota Straujuma.
As UNIAN reported earlier, EU has agreed on Riga summit declaration with visa-free prospects for Ukraine.
http://www.unian.info/politics/1080866-second-day-of-eu-summit-starts-in-riga-with-differences-over-declaration-wording.html
22/5/15