OREANDA-NEWS. February 09, 2011. The Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov has put forward an idea to sign the agreement on free trade zone with the European Union in two stages – the agreed upon part first and the part that is still under discussion – later as a separate agreement.  He articulated it at a meeting with the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Audronius Azubalis.

“It has just occurred to me – let’s move this issue in a phased way,” -  Mykola Azarov offered. According to the Head of Ukrainian Government, about 90 % of the agreement on the free trade zone with the EU had been endorsed, about 10 % needed further negotiations.  So, Mykola Azarov proposed: “We could sign the agreement in the part that have been approved, and the part that has not been discussed yet would be negotiated further”. 

The Prime Minister observed that in that respect the issue that needed consensus with the EU were, in particular, the agro-industrial sector. “We’d like to solve this problem on the principles of mutual understanding and equality.” Mykola Azarov pointed out that Ukraine had a powerful agro-industrial potential, and that issue were quite important for the negotiation process with the UE. At the same time the Head of the Government mentioned that Ukraine were planning to increase the amount of food production.