Brussels, 30/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - Uncertainty continued to hang over the outcome on the eve of the trilateral ministerial meeting between the EU, Russia and Ukraine in Brussels on Tuesday 1 December, a month to the day before the EU-Ukraine free-trade agreement (FTA) is due to come into force.
Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström again made clear, after the meeting of European trade ministers on Friday 27 November, that the EU wanted its FTA with Ukraine to come into effect on 1 January 2016 without retaliatory trade measures being taken by Russia.
The aim, for the moment, Malmström said, was for the agreement to come into effect on 1 January and to be sure that there would be no Russian reprisals. The EU wants to cooperate with Russia but Russia must accept the entry into force of the agreement without taking reprisals, she stated, highlighting, nonetheless, the good atmosphere in talks.
The EU, Russia and Ukraine have been trying, ever since it was decided, in September 2014, to delay application of the EU-Ukraine FTA by 15 months, to reach agreement on how best to address Russian concerns on this agreement, which, it fears, will damage its economy.
For 15 months, then, the three parties have sought practical technical solutions to Russia's fears in three areas - customs cooperation, technical trade barriers and sanitary and phytosanitary measures.
Russia, which has a preferential customs regime in place for Ukraine, threatened in November to jettison this regime and extend the embargo imposed on certain EU food products to Ukraine if its proposals were not accepted in a legally binding form. This would mean some re-negotiation of the EU-Ukraine FTA and that is something the EU will not agree to.
In a discussion with Russian Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev on 23 November, Malmström proposed that a technical level working group be set up to ensure the points raised by Russia once the EU-Ukraine FTA comes into force, are addressed.
The trilateral consultations are part of the Minsk agreement of 12 February on the conflict between Ukraine and pro-Russian forces in the east of the country. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)