Mogherini stresses importance of EU-Ukraine relations in visit to Kyiv
Federica Mogherini i was in Kyiv on Monday 9 November for talks with political leaders and civil society groups in Ukraine. During her visit she also met representatives of the Crimean Tatars. Speaking to the press after meeting President Petro Poroshenko i she said that the situation in Ukraine remained top of the EU agenda despite the other challenges the EU was facing with migration, the Mediterranean and the Middle East. She also reaffirmed that the implementation of the Minsk agreements by all sides was an absolute priority.
During her visit she also met with Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, and Speaker of Ukraine's Parliament Rada Volodymyr Groysman. She also held talks with representatives of different political factions in the Parliament of Ukraine.
She said that the EU would keep Ukraine high on its agenda and would continue its "common work on first of all the situation in the East of Ukraine, the non-recognition policy of the illegal annexation of Crimea, and the reform process in country". She noted her own visits and the imminent visits of a number of European Commissioners as evidence of the EU's involvement at the highest level.
In her meeting with President Poroshenko the High Representative said that they had discussed reforms - "not general, theoretical issues, but very concrete ones. First of all, we stressed the need to deliver on the anti-corruption reform, which is the key to the credibility and the sustainability of all the others".
On the Minsk agreements, the High Representative said that herself and President Poroshenko "shared the assessment of the fact that we are today in a much better position than it was the case months ago with the ceasefire finally in place and the withdrawal of weapons starting though the situation was of course still from ideal'. She noted important steps had to be taken together with the OSCE.
On the bilateral relation, Mogherini spoke about the trade part of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement that is going to be provisionally applied as of the 1 of January. The EU has been supporting the Ukrainian authorities to ensure a stable, prosperous and democratic future for the Ukrainian people. Since early last year, the EU has been stepping up its support for economic and political reform throughout Ukraine.
Fact sheet on EU-Ukraine relations
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