Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-11-14-Speech-3-378"
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"en.20071114.36.3-378"2
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"Mr President, first of all let me congratulate the rapporteur, Mr Zaleski, on this very good report.
In conclusion, allow me to once again congratulate the rapporteur on his good report. The Commission widely shares its general approach, except on the few issues that I have underlined above. The Commission will take the report into account in its ongoing and future cooperation with Ukraine.
I also want to thank the rapporteur for the excellent cooperation with the Commission services when drafting this report. The report is very timely. It provides a comprehensive overview of the issues at stake in EU-Ukraine economic and trade relations.
Allow me to focus on some points that you also highlighted in your report. We consider Ukraine a key and valuable partner in our neighbourhood strategy. We agree with the general spirit of the present report: to bring Ukraine’s economy as close as possible to the EU by means of a new enhanced agreement, of which the deep and comprehensive free trade agreement will be a key pillar.
The Commission also fully shares your views concerning the need to strengthen the rule of law in Ukraine and the importance of Ukraine’s accession to the WTO. We strongly hope that Ukraine can still complete the WTO accession process this year, and we will cooperate closely with the Ukrainian Government to this end. We consider that, once the accession package has been approved by the members of the WTO, the multilateral process of accession will have been completed.
Ukraine has set WTO accession as its priority and we are convinced that it will duly carry out its internal ratification procedures to formalise its membership. The European Union has no interest in further delaying the launch of FTA negotiations and is ready to start as soon as the decision on the accession package has been approved by the members of the WTO. Concerning the future FTA, we completely agree that it should be deep and comprehensive, with a strong focus on regulatory alignment.
As for economic relations with neighbouring countries, the report suggests a three-way dialogue: EU-Russia-Ukraine. We should be very prudent not to duplicate processes on topics already covered in other forums. Furthermore, the question arises as to whether the European Union would not risk being drawn into bilateral disputes between Russia and Ukraine. We would also question the benefit of such an approach.
It is our policy to favour the opening-up of energy markets to competition as a means of ensuring access to secure and affordable energy. This will be an important subject in the future FTA negotiations with Ukraine.
As for concerns on safeguarding the basic needs of the population, EU legislation on the liberalisation of the electricity and gas sector includes significant provisions with the scope to ensure protection of consumers and to safeguard their basic needs. We intend to negotiate Ukraine’s alignment with this legislation.
Concerning the suggestion to extend the GSP+ to Ukraine, I would like to underline that Ukraine does not qualify for these additional preferences and that the European Union has committed itself not to amend the basic GSP criteria on an ad hoc basis. In addition, this would severely undermine our negotiating positions for the future FTA."@en1
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