Foreign ministers of Eastern Partnership countries to meet in Brussels on Nov 15

Ukraine will present its position on the declaration of the Eastern Partnership summit in December at a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Eastern Partnership countries in Brussels on November 15.

Director of the EU and NATO Department at the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Maryna Mykhailenko, said this during a discussion entitled "Ukraine on the eve of the Eastern Partnership summit: Achievements and challenges," according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"Of course, we are very actively preparing for the Eastern Partnership summit, including coordinating our position within the Association Trio. [...] We have not yet received the text of the declaration, the EU is working on it, but we hope to receive it soon, because on Monday, November 15, a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Eastern Partnership countries will be held, where we will once again present our position. We would like to have the text of the declaration so that the discussion would be more substantive. We hope it will be so," Mykhailenko said.

She said that Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova had put forward their proposals to the summit declaration. According to Mykhailenko, the document proposed last year by the European Commission on the new goals of the Eastern Partnership policy after 2020 takes into account many proposals from the Ukrainian side.

"At the same time, in our opinion, we have proved to our European partners that this document is very practical – it does not contain a strategic goal for the development of the Eastern Partnership, which we, the members of the Association Trio, lack in this initiative. We have often talked about it as part of all possible events. So we would very much like the summit and the declaration to define in principle the strategic goal of the Eastern Partnership. For the trio countries, this, of course, is the provision of the European perspective, which is key for us," the diplomat said.

The Eastern Partnership summit is due to take place on December 15.

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