Summary of EU Summit Meeting on Ukraine
From: EUNews Roundup 9 March 2014
(This is a regular summary of EU news from the European Movement)
2. EU leaders met for an emergency EU Summit to craft a common reaction to the escalating crisis in Ukraine. They agreed to suspend talks on visa-free travel with Russia and to shelve talks on a new bilateral treaty with Russia. They added that unless Russia starts negotiations with Ukraine’s new government “in the next few days” and agrees in “a limited timeframe” to pull back troops, the EU will impose visa bans and asset freezes on Kremlin officials and cancel the next EU-Russia summit. They also said if Russia “further … destabilise[s] the situation in Ukraine” there will be “far reaching consequences … which will include a broad range of economic areas”. They also backed a European Commission proposal to pay Ukraine €11 billion in loans and grants in the next seven years in return for an ethnically “inclusive” government”. EU leaders also expressed the will to go ahead with the signature of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU. The last minute decision by Viktor Yanukovych, the former Ukrainian leader, to refuse signing the Association Agreement, led to massive pro-EU demonstrations in Kiev, which eventually caused the overthrow of his regime. European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, said the early signature “will seal the association between Ukraine and the EU, as was the wish of the Ukrainian people.”
Note that these are the conclusions of the leaders of the member countries of the EU.
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