Brussels, 21/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - At the end of two days of technical level consultations with Russia and Ukraine on consideration of the impact on Russia of the EU-Ukraine free trade agreement (FTA), the European Commission reiterated on Tuesday 21 April that it was ready to respond to Russia's concerns within the limits of flexibility allowed by the agreement.
“We had ten hours of discussions on the practical solutions as regards the Russian concerns. We want to find practical solutions to concrete problems. The Commission showed its readiness with a constructive approach, and proposed responding to Russia's concerns within the flexibility allowed by the agreement. We will examine measures to establish confidence in relation to the agreement”, said the Commission spokesperson for this issue, Daniel Rosario, on Tuesday.
“All the Russian concerns were discussed. Each party spoke of its concerns. The discussions must now be brought to the political level”, Rosario added, saying that a trilateral meeting at ministerial level would take place “very soon”.
The resumption of the trilateral negotiations on implementing the EU-Ukraine association agreement and its section on trade are part of the Minsk agreement of 12 February.
As part of the trilateral compromise found at ministerial level on 12 September 2014 (see EUROPE 11155), the Commission agreed to postpone the provisional implementation of the EU-Ukraine FTA until 1 January 2016 so as to respond to Russia's concerns. (Emmanuel Hagry)