Brussels, 24/09/2010 (Agence Europe) - The deputy director general for Energy of the European Commission, Fabrizio Barbaso, the Ukrainian energy minister Yuriy Boyko and the minister for the economy of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Fatmir Besimi, signed Ukraine's accession protocol to the Energy Community, on the sidelines of the ministerial council of the organisation, in Skopje on 24 September. This means that Ukraine joins Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, FYROM, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and the EU in this organisation, which aims to extend the Community acquis on the internal energy market to southern and eastern Europe and to increase the energy security of the European continent. (E.H./trans.fl)