L.Linkevičius: Association Agreements embed the European choice of the people of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia
The EU’s Association Agreements with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia were signed during the European Council on 27 June in Brussels. The President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė signed the Association Agreements on behalf of Lithuania.
Videos of the signing ceremony of the three Association Agreements are available here: http://tvnewsroom.consilium.europa.eu.
“Now we can already say that the goals of the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius have been achieved. The Association Agreements that were signed today embed the European choice of the people of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia,” the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius stressed during an event, which was held at the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry on this occasion.
According to the Lithuanian Foreign Minister, in addition to having big symbolic value, the Association Agreements should bring practical and specific benefits to the Eastern partnership countries, EU citizens and business community. However, in order to achieve this, the signatories to these agreements - Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia – will have to harmonize their national laws with the EU acquis and implement a number of political, economic and social reforms.
“Successful implementation of these agreements is now most important. It’s no easy task, but you are not alone in this. You have our full political support, the EU also plans to provide significant financial aid to help you with the implementation of agreed reforms,” L.Linkevičius told the Ambassadors of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia who attended the event.
According to the Minister, the signature of the Association Agreements with the EU is yet another significant step toward the integration of the three Eastern partnership countries into the EU.
The EU’s Association Agreements with Moldova and Georgia were initialled at the Vilnius Summit in November 2013. The political part of the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine was signed on 21 March. With today’s signing of the remaining chapters in Brussels, the signature procedure of the whole Association Agreement is concluded.
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