Debate on Association Agreements / Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreements with Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine during the EP Plenary session (18-21/01) in Strasbourg. Statements by Johannes HAHN, Member of the EC in charge of European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations on behalf of Federica MOGHERINI, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC, Michael GAHLER (EPP, DE), Richard Stuart HOWITT (S&D, UK), Anna Elzbieta FOTYGA (ECR, PL), Johannes Cornelis van BAALEN (ALDE, NL) and Heidi Anneli HAUTALA (Greens/EFA, FI)

Association Agreements / Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreements with Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine: extracts from the debate

SOUNDBITE (English), Johannes HAHN, Member of the EC in charge of European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations on behalf of Federica MOGHERINI, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC, For Ukraine, the TC-FD can bring significant economic benefits. Ukrainian businesses will now receive stable and predictable preferential access to the largest market in the world with 500 000 000 customers, and EU enterprises will be able to benefit from easier access to the Ukrainian market, so we must help Ukraine develop the right conditions to encourage business and investments relationships.

SOUNDBITE (English), Johannes HAHN, Member of the EC in charge of European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations on behalf of Federica MOGHERINI, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC, Now, Ukraine faces a number of measures imposed by Russia impeding trade and will need our support here too.

SOUNDBITE (English), Johannes HAHN, Member of the EC in charge of European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations on behalf of Federica MOGHERINI, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC, Ukraine needs to show it is open for business by aligning with the EU standards in key sector and take decisive action on rule of law.

SOUNDBITE (English), Johannes HAHN, Member of the EC in charge of European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations on behalf of Federica MOGHERINI, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC, The government has also adopted a law on the natural gas market which aims at bringing the gas sector of Ukraine in line with the EU third energy package.

SOUNDBITE (English), Johannes HAHN, Member of the EC in charge of European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations on behalf of Federica MOGHERINI, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC, Turning to Moldova, the country has made great progress in concluding and implementing the association agreement and TC-FD with the European Union, since 1st January the region of Transnistria also has the possibility to trade preferentially under TC-FD, making an important contribution to our conflict resolution.

SOUNDBITE (English), Johannes HAHN, Member of the EC in charge of European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations on behalf of Federica MOGHERINI, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC, As regarding Georgia, impressive efforts have been made to implement the association agreement and the results are already visible with a strong growth in fond direct investments. Other indicators also show promising signs, the liberalization action plan has proven to be an effective tool for promoting a range of reforms, but Georgia has come beyond the action plan benchmarks and taken further steps to reform the judiciary as well as the prosecutor office.

SOUNDBITE (German), Michael GAHLER (EPP, DE), The citizens of the Republic of Moldova want to see the crimes of the banking sector investigated, they want to see the state and the economy stabilized and the EU is prepared to help, but without sufficient efforts made on the part of the elite in Moldova, there will be no improvement. We expect human and civil rights to be respected, for there to be rule of law, for there to be pluralism in the democracy there and also in the media.

SOUNDBITE (English), Richard Stuart HOWITT (S&amp;D, UK), On Georgia, selective justice and corruption is a problem in all the countries of the neighbourhood, not of one country, and the EPP should not engage in selective politics, but supports Georgia's aspirations too. Finally our neighbours' neighbours; once again I place on record that my group supports the European Commission's tentative and study of the possibilities for relations between the European Union and the Eurasian Union, and I support for political dialogue with Moscow, not to bargain over sovereign countries, or to weaken our approach on sanctions, socialists and democrats do not deny or underestimate different perspectives, but we do want to make genuine attempts to reach them.

SOUNDBITE (Polish), Anna El&#380;bieta FOTYGA (ECR, PL), We support the efforts of reformers in all three countries, and we feel it is very important that the visa regime should be abolished as soon as possible. Poland has had good experience with migration, welcoming hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, who are mainly economic migrants. So we should not be afraid of them or that; that is something positive.

SOUNDBITE (English), Johannes Cornelis van BAALEN (ALDE, NL), It is in the interest of all that we come at a talk with the three countries we mentioned to help them, to assist them, and the agreements we speak about are vital in this respect. A stable economy, economic growth, reestablishment of the rule of law, the fight against corruption, we should of course and we do financially support them, but also every euro spent should be accounted for, this would mean that in a few years, these countries will be able to export stability and not only consume stability.

SOUNDBITE (English), Heidi Anneli HAUTALA (Greens/EFA, FI), Concerning the forthcoming referendum in the Netherlands, we should take note of it, we should hope that the Dutch people are fully aware that this is about Ukraine's place in the geopolitical landscape, if they have the right to join Europe as they wish, or as if they will be at the mercy of Russia.

Association Agreements / Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreements with Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine: extracts from the debate

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