Jim Murphy

EU-Ukraine Summit

The Foreign Secretary visited Kiev two weeks ago, to show our support for Ukraine in the wake of events in Georgia. Today in Paris the EU and Ukraine agreed to take our relationship a big step forward by agreeing to conclude an Association Agreement.  This will help Ukraine to integrate further into the European economy, co-operate on tackling organised crime and trafficking, and improve the prosperity and security of the EU.

Ukraine is a European country, the Summit today explicitly recognised that fact and acknowledged that one day Ukraine might apply for membership.  David Miliband set out our approach towards Ukraine in a speech he delivered in Kiev.  We believe that the door to EU membership should be open to Ukraine.  EU membership will take time and effort, but the goal should be clear.

This success makes it all the more important that Ukraine can handle effectively the domestic political challenges we have seen over the past couple of weeks.  I've been heartened by the firm commitment which all sides in Kiev have made to tackling those challenges constitutionally and democratically.  Ukraine's democratic record, as well as its impressively free media, have the shown that the country can be a leader and - as the Foreign Secretary said in Kiev - a model to others in the region.  They also underpin Ukraine's strong case for membership of the EU and NATO in due course.

Posted at 17:48 09 September 2008 by Jim Murphy  |  Comments[3]