OREANDA-NEWS. The head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrel, hopes that at the upcoming meeting in Paris in Norman format on Monday, progress will be made to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. He stated this on Monday upon arrival at the first meeting of the EU Council in Brussels under his chairmanship.

“We hope that at this meeting it will be possible to continue work and move forward for a peaceful and sustainable solution to the Ukrainian conflict. This is one of the main priorities that we must resolve in the EU”, he said. Borrell stressed that the upcoming summit in Paris is a serious step towards resolving the conflict in Ukraine. According to him, noticeable progress was already visible ahead of this meeting.

"There is a separation of forces, the cessation of hostilities. This meeting will allow us to take a serious step to resolve the Ukrainian conflict, which is one of the most important priorities of the European Union", he said.

The so-called "Norman format" of negotiations on Ukraine has existed since June 2014. Then, during the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany for the first time discussed the settlement of the intra-Ukrainian conflict in the Donbass.