Brussels, 12/03/2008 (Agence Europe) - As earlier announced (EUROPE 9619), the EU/Ukraine Cooperation Council endorsed, on 11 March, the decision to extend by one more year the action plan for implementation of European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) with this country. The meeting in Brussels, also attended by Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko, mainly took stock of the talks underway on an enhanced partnership agreement and on the conclusion of a free trade area. Discussion also covered the situation in Kosovo, Belarus, Moldova and Russia. Speaking to the press after the meeting, Ms Timoshenko reiterated her request to do away with the visa obligation. A visa facilitation agreement was sealed in 2007 but the EU first of all demands that this agreement be implemented in a correct and lasting way before taking another step forward. “We trust that, step by step, we shall be able to meet all the criteria allowing us to be exempt from the visa obligation”, the prime minister said. Ms Timoshenko also tabled Kiev's desire to include a “European perspective” in the future new partnership agreement. “We need to bring our relations up to a qualitatively higher level. We need an enhanced agreement and we need to speak about perspectives, think about the future”, she said. The European Commission representative welcomed the “extremely effective” way in which Ukraine has applied the ENP action plan over the last three years. (H.B.)