European Parliament's committee approves recommendations on Ukraine to EU Council

BRUSSELS – The European Parliament's Committee on International Trade has supported a report with recommendations to the Council, the Commission and the European External Action Service on the negotiations on the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement in terms of a deep and comprehensive free trade area. Vice-Chairman of the International Trade Committee Pawel Zalewski (the European People's Party group, Poland) said this in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine on Monday after the committee's meeting.

"My proposals were supported by the committee and the main conclusion of the recommendations is that the integration of the Ukrainian economy with the European one will benefit both parties," the MEP said.

Zalewski believes that the adoption of such recommendations was not too late in the light of the fact that the Ukraine-EU talks on both the free trade area and on the Association Agreement have been virtually completed, except for the political issue of Ukraine prospect of the EU membership.

"It is important for the European Parliament, which always wants to present its position. In addition, it is the responsibility of the parliament to ratify a deep and comprehensive free trade area [agreement]. And so it is important to convey the parliament's opinion on this issue to the European Commission and the EU Council," the European politician said.

According to him, the Committee on International Trade considers it important to set a goal to begin a preliminary implementation of the Association Agreement. "We do not want to separate these two parts - the political and economic, we want them to be initialed. This is our political message," Zalewski said.

In particular, the recommendations contain proposals to support the conclusion of the negotiations on the FTA by the end of this year, call for reforms in Ukraine, which will modernize the country's infrastructure, recognize that the conclusion of an Association Agreement will provide "a double instrument for establishing the rule of law in Ukraine for investors," and will deepen the European principles of law and democracy.