Ukraine is promised closer ties with the EU
The Ukraine-EU summit has concluded with the EU promising a deeper relationship and the conclusion of an association agreement by March 2009. Crucially, the communique did not offer Ukraine a membership perspective. Reluctance to take this step reflects several factors: enlargement fatigue; doubts about Ukraine’s suitability; and concerns about Russia’s response to closer EU-Ukrainian ties.
The September 9th EU-Ukrainian summit promised to upgrade relations between the two parties but stopped short of offering Ukraine, which aspires to EU accession, a so-called membership perspective. The concluding joint declaration noted that the sections of a new Association Agreement (AA) covering political cooperation and justice, freedom and security were virtually complete, and that the sections on economic and sectoral co-operation were progressing well. A deep and comprehensive free-trade area, which became possible in the wake of Ukraine’s accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) earlier this year, will take longer. ...
Read More...
[Source: The Economist: News analysis - Posted by FreeAutoBlogger]
No comments:
Post a Comment