The EU should offer Russia a probation period to deepen the cooperation, - Javier Solana

The European Union should offer Russia at least one year of probation period to deepen the economic cooperation between the countries. In a case if the signing of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU has substantial negative implications for the RF economy, the European Union could find mechanisms to mitigate such implications. This is the opinion shared by Javier Solana, president of ESADE Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics, member of the Board of the Yalta European Strategy (YES) during the panel “From Yalta via Budapest to Yalta – Global Security Breakdown?” at the 11th Annual Meeting f Yalta European Strategy (YES) on Friday in Kyiv.

“It should be thought how to combine the Association Agreement (with Ukraine), and how it would impact on Russia. If it affects Russia indeed, we will be able to find mechanisms to mitigate the economic implications for Russia. Then, we will have a certain space to act. The Commission should think about this, and we may do the probation for a certain period, one year or so, to work together and see what the implications would be”, said Solana.
He pointed out that the Ukrainian State has found itself in an uneasy situation where it had to choose between the EU integration and Russia that was appealing to the need for Ukraine to join the Customs Union.
Additionally, Ukrainian President (1994-2005) Leonid Kuchma who was also participating in the discussion stressed that Ukraine should be grateful to the USA for the clear position in defending the interests of the State, and it should deepen its cooperation with China, as it is China that helped solve many economic problems of the State.

Yalta European Strategy (YES) is the leading public diplomacy platform in Eastern Europe to develop strategies for Ukraine and Wider Europe and promote Ukraine’s European integration. YES was established in 2004 by Ukrainian businessman and public figure Victor Pinchuk and is led by a distinguished board including President of Poland (1995-2005) Aleksander Kwasniewski, former Secretary General of NATO (1995-1999) and EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy (1999-2009) Javier Solana, and others.

The 11th Yalta European Strategy (YES) Annual Meeting will be streamed live at yes-ukraine.org in English and Ukrainian.
The official Twitter of the 11th YES Annual Meeting: @YES_Ukraine,  Hashtag: #YESUkraine2014

Special Partners of the 11th YES Annual Meeting include:
DTEK, ALFA-BANK (UKRAINE), BURISMA HOLDINGS
Partners of the 11th YES Annual Meeting are:
SHELL, INTERNATIONAL RENAISSANCE FOUNDATION
Media Partners of the 11th YES Annual Meeting are:
ICTV, UKRAYINSKA PRAVDA, NOVOYE VREMYA STRANY (NV), ERA FM