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Ukrainian Pres. Poroshenko to address Polish parliament?

PR dla Zagranicy
John Beauchamp 26.11.2014 10:26
Parliamentary Speaker Radoslaw Sikorski has voiced hopes that Ukrainian President Poroshenko will address MPs and senators during his visit to Poland in December.

Parliamentary
Parliamentary Speaker Radoslaw Sikorski opens proceedings in the Sejm, 26.11.2014 Photo: PAP/Jakub Kamiński

The announcement comes as the Polish Sejm lower parliamentary house is set to debate the recent signing of an association agreement between the EU and Ukraine.

Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs believed that the agreement may be ratified by the end of 2014, with Sikorski hoping that President Bronislaw Komorowski will sign the deal during Poroshenko’s visit, set for 17 December.

The EU and Ukraine signed the political sections of the Association Agreement on 21 March in Brussels. All 28 member states, the Presidents of the European Council and Commission, as well as the Ukrainian PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

The political elements of the agreement concern common democratic standards and the principles of a free market based on EU-Ukraine cooperation.

However, the agreement omits any reference to any possible steps which could be taken by Ukraine to join the European Union if it so wished, mentioning only “European aspirations”.

The second part of the agreement, which concerns a free trade area, and which also highlights cooperation in terms of the economy and justice, as well as internal affairs, was signed on 27 June.

The agreement was supposed to have been signed in November last year at an Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius. However, the then Ukrainian government put a stop to the proceedings, with then President Yanukovych saying that he was afraid of worsening relations with Russia.

The decision sparked social unrest, leading to the Maydan protests in the heart of the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. President Yanukovych and the government were ousted, which in turn led to Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula and a deepening of the crisis between the two countries. (jb)

Source: PAP

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