EU Ambassador Teixeira: Ukraine can't be in two free trade areas simultaneously

KYIV, February 10 /UKRINFORM/. Jose Manuel Pinto Teixeira, the Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine in an interview with Channel 5 reiterated the official stand of the European Union that the parallel existence of free trade areas between Ukraine and the EU and between Ukraine and the CIS is impossible.

Teixeira called absurd a situation when negotiations on a free trade area with the EU are finalized, the agreement is ready but has not yet been signed.

Teixeira recalled that the EU has consistently and from the beginning said that the deep and exclusive free trade area, which provides significant integration of Ukraine with the EU, is incompatible with the agreement on a free trade area with CIS countries and the customs union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan”.

As UKRINFORM reported, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov at the Summit of CIS Heads of Government in St. Petersburg in October last year signed a free trade deal within the CIS. It is planned that the Ukrainian parliament will ratify the agreement after February 20.

At the same time, Ukraine and the EU agreed, but have never signed a similar agreement.