Brussels, 07/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and Russian Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev agreed at their meeting in Brussels on Monday 7 September to pursue technical-level trilateral discussions until October with a view to finding ways to ease Russian concerns over the implementation of a deep and comprehensive free-trade area between the EU and Ukraine that is due to be provisionally applied from 1 January 2016.
“Taking note of the current unsatisfactory developments of the trade flows, the participants have reaffirmed their commitment towards achieving practical arrangements that would contribute to maintaining open economic relations with a view to enabling economic growth”, states a joint press release published after this third trilateral ministerial meeting since the agreement on 12 September 2014 (see EUROPE 11155) which brought a 15-month delay in the EU-Ukraine free-trade agreement. The three parties agreed to technical-level discussions to find practical solutions to Russian concerns over customs union, technical obstacles to trade and in the area of health and plant health.
During their talks on Monday, the three ministers exchanged views on the report prepared by experts after the technical-level meetings on 7-8 June and 4-5 July. Taking note of the different views, they agreed to mandate the experts to continue the work at the technical level with a view to producing a blueprint by October 2015 with practical solutions to concerns raised by Russia. The three will meet again in November to take stock of the work “to allow for a mutually agreed outcome before the end of the year”.
After the two technical-level meetings in early summer, the Commission spoke, in a press release on 5 August, of some progress being made in the areas of technical regulation and customs and of persistent difficulties in the area of health and plant health.
The trilateral consultations on the EU-Ukraine free-trade agreement form part of the Minsk Agreements of 12 February. (Emmanuel Hagry)