Kyiv, April 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine currently doesn't have observer status in the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, as this organization has not previously provided for such forms of cooperation, according to Deputy Prime Minister Yuriy Boyko, who heads a working group on cooperation with the Customs Union.
In an interview with Dzerkalo Tyzhnya, when asked to comment on the statement by Prime Minister Mykola Azarov that Ukraine reached a tentative agreement about getting observer status in the Customs Union, Boyko said that the organization hasn’t previously provided for such a form of cooperation and therefore has not considered this matter.
“Even if Ukraine or another country wanted to have that status (of the observer), the Customs Union’s members simply do not have a mechanism to implement such plans. However, the government of Ukraine on behalf of the president is indeed developing documents on the possible observer status in the Customs Union,” Boyko said.
On April 23, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said that Ukraine had reached a tentative agreement about getting observer status in the Customs Union, which can be formalized at a meeting with the leadership of this organization in late May.
At the same time, Russian Deputy Minister for Economic Development Alexei Likhachev said that this issue had not been resolved and that negotiations with the Ukrainian side were currently continuing at a bilateral level with the member countries of the Customs Union and at the level of the council of the Eurasian Economic Commission, which serves as a supranational regulatory body of this union.
