EU and Ukraine Try to Deepen Ties

ANCHOR:
Leaders of the European Union and Ukraine said they had agreed at a
summit in Paris on Tuesday. They want to work on deepening ties, but the EU stopped
short of offering Kiev a firm membership pledge.


STORY:
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said a joint text agreed with
President Viktor Yushchenko acknowledged Ukraine's European aspirations and
status as a European country and stated the intention to launch dialogue
towards an eventual visa-free regime.

[Nicolas Sarkozy, French President]:
"I reiterate, we, Europeans, want to soothe relations with Russia.
We want to understand each other through dialogue, diplomacy and politics.
Certainly not militarily, certainly not. You asked me a question about the
territorial integrity of Ukraine and for Europe this is not negotiable"

He and Yushchenko said they agreed that a broad bilateral pact under
negotiation would be called an "association agreement" -- wording
that can imply the possibility of future membership. But there was no mention
of an explicit offer of future membership Ukraine has been seeking.

[Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine President]:
"Today we have obtained the status of qualification of a European
state. Today we have signed a document for the association agreement. It's
the first of many steps that had been taken in the 1990s by all the states
that today are members of the European Union"

Sarkozy told the same news conference that a declaration agreed with
Yushchenko acknowledged Ukraine's EU aspirations and status as a European
country, while promising to launch talks on visa-free arrangements for
Ukrainian citizens.

[Jose Manual Barroso, European Commission President]:
"We don't need a cold war in Europe. We need to be cool headed
not a cold war. [English] Cool heads not a cold war! That is the path
towards the European Union. It's on this path that we are working. We don't
want go back to a Europe divided into blocs."

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• ntd
• EU
• Ukraine
• paris
• ties
• politics
• Kiev
• Nicolas
• Sarkozy
• Viktor
• Yushchenko

[williamcambodia]

The Ukraine should join the EU if it wishes.

[cr561979]

There's no doubt Ukraine will join it is definitively european culture.

Turkey must stay out its midle-east.

[MullerPetro]

European Union needs to help Ukraine as well as United States helped Europe after the world war.

[MrKostya2005]

@uzunsky BULGARIA IS TURKISH BITHCH!!!

FUCH YOU!!!

[Kasbeke]

EU and Ukraine both gay

Long Live Free Germany, Russia, Serbia and Poland.