26/08 11:00 FTA Position Paper press-briefing The EBA officially handed over the FTA Position Paper to Vice-Prime Minister of Ukraine Hryhoriy Nemyria and Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine Valeriy Piatnytsky.
On 26 August, 2008 the European Business Association arranged a press-briefing to present the Free Trade Area Position Paper initiated and developed by the EBA community embracing nearly 750 member-companies.
Establishing Free Trade Area (FTA) between Ukraine and EU aims to extend and expand economic horizons for both Parties. Since recently Ukraine joined the WTO, the FTA negotiations became official. As this process raised issues of prime concern to business circles, Government requested numerous business players of Ukraine to outline their ideas and come up with their views and recommendations on developing such an area.
Therefore, Ukraine's business community united under the European Business Association, the premier organisation for foreign business in Ukraine, was the first to develop its approach on a range of issues that are immensely crucial in terms of maintaining and enhancing economic and trade relations between Ukraine and EU. The EBA truly believes that this initiative will be very useful for Ukraine's Government while negotiating with European colleagues.
The FTA Position Paper was presented by:
• Trond Moe, EBA President
• Anna Derevyanko, EBA Executive Director
The press-briefing featured the following guest speakers:
• Vice-Prime Minister of Ukraine Hryhoriy Nemyria
• Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine Valeriy Piatnytsky
Vice-Prime Minister Hryhoriy Nemyria stated that the FTA Position Paper is a solid and coherent document consolidating opinions of various businesses - both Ukrainian and foreign - working in Ukraine. Mr Nemyria said: "Recently the Government called business for its position. We are open for consultation with all parties concerned in order to make Ukraine's position for negotiations as strong as possible. And I would like to thank the EBA for taking the lead in this process".
He also added:
1. We created a European Integration Bureau - a coordination body in the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers. It will allow us to ensure horizontal coordination within the Government to secure coherent policy of development and implementation, including consultations with shareholders (like those of EU-Ukraine FTA).
2. In addition, my staff prepared recommendations to the new draft of Rules of Procedure of Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. For provisions and draft laws related to European integration and better investment climate we suggest cutting the time of their elaboration more than in half. At the same time, Prime Minister recently approached the Verkhovna Rada with recommendations to apply a simplified procedure for certain draft laws (again, European and better investment climate).
Vice-Prime Minister of Ukraine Hryhoriy Nemyria and Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine Valeriy Pyatnytsky thanked the EBA community for making an effort to elaborate the FTA Position Paper. Furthermore, both high-rank officials stressed the great importance and value of the EBA document for promoting negotiations between Ukraine and EU. | 