The European Commission is shocked by the unprecedented impudence of Ukraine
The Ukrainian parliament is violating the terms of the trade agreement with the European Union, which will not be without consequences for Kyiv.
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This was stated in an interview with “European Pravda” by the head of the European Commission Directorate General for Neighborhood Issues and EU Enlargement Negotiations, Christian Danielson, answering a question about the “Buy Ukrainian” law adopted by Verkhovna Rada in the first reading, according to which, in public procurement, advantages are provided primarily to those suppliers who can confirm that their production is related to Ukraine.
“We have an Association Agreement with Ukraine, which creates a deep and comprehensive free trade area and provides for the economic integration of Ukraine and the EU - as deep as possible. And if this bill really violates the provisions of the Association Agreement, then we will strongly advise Ukraine to refrain from adopting it,” Danielson said.
He also explained what Ukraine is risking.
“Firstly, you will violate your international obligations. All our relations are based on respect for international law. As for me, this is enough,” the European official believes.
He also noted that the EU will not leave the adoption of this law unanswered.
“Let me remind you that we have liberalized trade with Ukraine, in accordance with the Association Agreement. And if one of the parties violates the terms of the trade agreement, then we will have to talk about the consequences that this will have. And there will be consequences! Of course, I cannot predict in advance in detail exactly what consequences we may be talking about, but they will definitely be,” the representative of the European Commission threatened.
According to him, the EU has never encountered such a violation of signed obligations.
“In my experience (and here we are talking about the EU’s relations not only with Ukraine, but also with other countries of the world), we have never, I emphasize, never had anything like this! None of the partners with whom the European Union has concluded free trade agreements allowed itself to promote laws that so flagrantly violate the terms of the free trade agreement!
Yes, in my experience there have been cases when elements and details of legislation conflicted with the trade obligations of partner countries. In each of these cases, we started a discussion and changes were made to these norms. But I have never seen anything like this in the EU’s relations with any other country in the world,” Danielson emphasized.
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