Brussels, 04/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström will meet Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and Russia's Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev in Brussels on Monday 7 September in order to continue their trilateral discussions on taking account of Russia's concerns with regard to implementation of the free trade agreement (FTA) between the EU and Ukraine. After a 15-month delay, the FTA is due to come into force on 1 January 2016.
Following separate meetings between Malmström and each of her two counterparts, a trilateral meeting will be held on Monday afternoon. “This trilateral meeting aims to continue the dialogue on the practical solutions to be found in order to take account of the Russian concerns. No breakthrough is expected”, an EU source close to the issue told EUROPE on Friday 4 September.
During the last trilateral meeting at ministerial level, in Brussels on 18 May (see EUROPE 11317), Russia withdrew its request for the EU-Ukraine FTA to be delayed. Under the terms of the ministerial compromise of 12 September 2014 (see EUROPE 11155), the EU-Ukraine FTA is due to come into force provisionally on 1 January 2016. The three parties nevertheless agreed to step up their efforts on the technical level in order to find practical solutions to the Russian concerns about customs cooperation, technical barriers to trade, and in the sanitary and phytosanitary domain.
After two technical-level trilateral meetings on 4-5 June and 7-8 July, the European Commission spoke in a press release on 5 August of “some progress” in the areas of technical regulation and customs, but said “difficulties remain” in the sanitary and phytosanitary domain.
The trilateral consultations on the EU-Ukraine FTA are part of the Minsk peace agreement of 12 February. (Emmanuel Hagry)