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Ukrainian Foreign Ministry opens hotline on European integration

KIEV, January 14. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has opened a hotline on European integration, the ministry’s spokesman, Yevgeny Perebeynos, said on Tuesday.

The hotline will work within two hours on Tuesday and Thursdays. Anyone who wishes will be able to get “information on political aspects of European integration and visa liberalisation between Ukraine and the European Union”, Perebeynos said.

Last week the hotline on Ukraine-EU cooperation was opened at the Economic Development and Trade Ministry. Director for the European integration department Vyacheslav Tsymbal told Itar-Tass: “Any citizen can receive an answer on prospects for signing the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union.”

The ministry’s experts believe that entrepreneurs can use this opportunity in order to assess what impact European integration can have on doing business in different branches of the Ukrainian economy, Tsymbal said.

Initially, the Ukrainian government was planning to sign the Association Agreement with the European Union and a free trade zone agreement at the Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius on November 28-29, 2013. However, a week before the summit Ukraine suspended preparations for signing the document due to the difficult economic situation that made European integration supporters to organise rallies on Independence Square in Kiev. On December 17, 2013 Russia and Ukraine reached the agreements on providing assistance to Ukraine’s economy.

In the New Year address to the nation, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich said Ukraine “resumed friendly and brotherly relations with Russia”.

In addition, he said Ukraine “continues working on the agreement with the European Union and maintains balance between the East and the West due to its national interests”.

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