Eastern Partnership should promote Ukraine's integration into EU market - Kuleba

The future of the Eastern Partnership should be ambitious and facilitate Ukraine's integration into the EU's internal market, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said.

Kuleba said this at a videoconference in the format of the Group of Ukraine's Friends in the EU with the participation of EU foreign ministers, according to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.

The videoconference took place on the eve of a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council on April 22. Ukrainian issues are to be discussed at the meeting.

In the context of preparations for this year's Eastern Partnership Summit, Kuleba stressed that the ambitious and strategic nature of the EU's future policy towards Eastern partners, taking into account their European aspirations, is important to Ukraine.

"The future of the Eastern Partnership should be ambitious and facilitate Ukraine's integration into the EU's internal market," Kuleba said.

He informed his colleagues about the measures the Ukrainian government is taking to minimize the negative effects of the pandemic on the Ukrainian economy and the state of implementation of internal reforms, particularly in the context of European integration.

"Ukraine knows how to continue reforms while waging a war against Russian aggression and against the spread of a pandemic," Kuleba said.

EU officials welcomed the progress made by the Ukrainian authorities in reforming and adopting key legislative decisions, particularly on the liberalization of the land market.

The importance of resuming cooperation with the IMF was emphasized.

In addition, Kuleba informed his colleagues in detail about the situation in Donbas. In particular, he spoke about the shelling of Ukrainian positions from Russian-controlled territories, the Russian side's failure to comply with the provisions of the Minsk agreements and the decisions of the Normandy summit. The sides expressed concern over Russia's blocking the access of the OSCE SMM and international humanitarian organizations to non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

According to the report, against the backdrop of speculative attempts by the Russian Federation to ease the sanction pressure under the cover of the coronavirus pandemic in the EU, it was emphasized that sanctions imposed against Russia will remain in force until the Minsk agreements are fully implemented and the Ukrainian territory is de-occupied.

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