Ukraine - EU agreement to be signed today

Today Ukraine will officially side with the EU as President Petro Poroshenko is due to sign an association agreement with the EU.

The same deal should have been signed last year but former President, Viktor Yanukovych, renounced the EU agreement at the last minute and turned to Russia, thus triggering the revolution which led to today’s conflict in eastern Ukraine.

The EU agreement with Ukraine is aimed at establishing a free-trade area and, through this, boost the country’s critical economy.

President Poroshenko, now in Brussels, said that: ‘I am sure that today during my first visit to the Parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe and tomorrow in Brussels, where we will finally sign the association agreement, we will get a new thrust for reforms and we will witness the ‘Europeanisation’ of Ukraine. I am sure that it will be an historical day for us, Ukrainians, and for the whole world.’

However Moscow is obviously not pleased with the EU-Ukraine agreement as it fears that it might harm its economy, especially since Georgia and Moldova are to sign the same agreement with the EU.

Moreover, Moscow’s ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, said that Ukraine is about to commit ‘economic suicide’ by turning away from Russia and that some measures will be taken in order to protect Moscow’s economy: ‘If Ukraine goes into association with the EU, then we will be obliged to switch to normal non-preferential regime of MFN – ‘Much Favoured Nation’ – which is normal for trade relations between most countries of the world, but Ukraine will no longer be able to count on preferential treatment.’