Brussels, 28/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - The EU-Ukraine summit, initially scheduled for Thursday 19 May, has been postponed until September, a European source told EUROPE on Thursday 28 April.
According to this source, the delay is because, inter alia, Ukraine has a new government. “We want to give it more time to bed in and to take stock of what it can do with the reforms”, the source said. The parties believe, too, that it is more useful to wait until after the conclusion of the review currently taking place of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme. Lastly, they want to allow more time for Ukraine's provisional implementation of the association agreement and of the deep and comprehensive free-trade agreement, the source added. Provisional implementation dates from 1 January 2016.
“European Council President Donald Tusk and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko agreed that it made more sense to wait and to hold the summit in September”, the source stated. The exact new date for the summit has yet to be decided.
Tusk and Poroshenko have also decided to meet just prior to the next European Council, scheduled for 28 and 29 June, to discuss the Minsk agreements. That European Council is expected to provide the opportunity for EU leaders to discuss extending the sanctions against Russia imposed as a direct response to the Ukrainian crisis. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)