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Ukrainian delegation to go to Brussels July 8 for talks on financial aid

KIEV, July 07. /ITAR-TASS/. A Ukrainian delegation will go to Brussels on Tuesday, July 8, for talks on financial aid to Kiev, presidential deputy chief of staff Valery Chaly told ICTV on Monday, July 7.

“I will be going with a delegation to Brussels tomorrow in order to discuss financial assistance through the mechanism of donor aid,” he said, adding that the delegation would also include parliament-appointed Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Groisman.

Chaly said the EU initiative to provide 850 million euros in aid to Kiev was “an important but not sufficient element”. Ukraine “needs to understand the plan of financial support and the implementation plan for the Association Agreement with the EU,” Chaly said.

On June 27, the European Union signed Association Agreements with Georgia and Moldova and the economic part of the agreement with Ukraine.

In April, Ukraine signed the political part of the agreement with the EU, which makes up about 2% of the document. The remaining 98% deal with the creation of a free trade zone between the EU and Ukraine, which will basically mean the opening up of the Ukrainian market to European goods since Ukrainian industrial commodities cannot compete on European markets: there is no demand for the defence industry’s products as EU countries are adopting NATO standards, and agricultural produce can hardly make their way to the saturated European market where even EU countries have to observe production quotas.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin said the signing of the economic part of the Association Agreement with the European Union would require Ukraine to restructure its economy.

When asked about the risks the agreement might create for Ukrainian industry, Klimkin told ITAR-TASS, “We have thoroughly studied the consequences of the Association Agreement for all sectors of the Ukrainian economy. It will be important to carry out economic restructuring.”

By that he means the closing down of enterprises which do not fit into the new conditions for the development of the country and the transfer of labour to new sectors.

Now the agreement has to be ratified by the parliaments of all of the EU member states.

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