KIEV, June 25. /TASS/. EU officials have denied the media reports alleging that the European commissioner for regional policy, Johannes Hahn, made a recommendation to the Ukrainian authorities to grant a special status to Donbass before a provision of the Minsk accords on ceasefire was fulfilled, UNIAN news agency said quoting Maja Kocijancic, the press secretary of the EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini.
As she commented on the assertions made by the Yevropeiskaya Pravda publication, she said no changes in the EU policy line had taken place.
An article in Yevropeiskaya Pravda claimed Commissioner Hahn had tried to convince the Ukrainian authorities during his visit to Kiev that Donbas should be given a special status as early as possible.
A document known as the Complex of Measures on Fulfilling the Minsk Accords, which the leaders of Russia, France, Germany, and Ukraine and members of the Contact Group of peace settlement of the conflict in Ukraine coordinated and signed on February 12, 2015 in Minsk envisions ceasefire and the pullback of heavy weapons from the line of contact separating the pro-Kiev armed units and the Donbas self-defence forces as a priority step.
This should be followed by a constitutional reform in Ukraine, the backbone element of which is decentralization, and the adoption of a permanent legislative act on the special status of separate areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Item 12 of the document says the issues concerning the local elections will be discussed and coordinated with Donbas representatives in the format of the Contact Group.