OREANDA-NEWS. September 20, 2013. Association Agreement with the European Union will create fundamentally new conditions for development of Ukraine both in terms of foreign and domestic development. This was announced by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Leonid Kozhara today during a press briefing at the Government House.

"Today we’ve had held a very important meeting of the Government and important decisions have been taken, in particular the draft Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union approved this morning and, in fact, we can say that the work under the Agreement at the level of the Government is completed. It will affect the scope of reforming of government authorities, governance of the state, and positively impact on the social sector, private business and affect all aspects of our country and our society," the Minister of Foreign Affairs said.

Leonid Kozhara added that as of today the European integration of Ukraine is not only a matter of foreign policy. "Now it's more a matter of internal policy of Ukraine. If you look how negotiations with the European Union goes, so most of the work was done even not by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but the Ministry of Economy, which is responsible for the preparation of the Agreement on Free Trade, the Ministry of Justice and virtually all state agencies. So it is clear that now European integration is the issue of internal political life of Ukraine," he said.

Foreign Minister stressed that the Association Agreement is an important achievement of the current leadership of Ukraine and a major foreign policy achievement. "In fact, Ukraine has been negotiating with not only one body of the European Union. We have negotiations with all bodies of the European Union - the European Commission, the European Parliament and all EU member states," the Minister said.

Leonid Kozhara noted that the Agreement on FTA with the European Union considers the interests of all of our manufacturers. "Where there were our interests Ukraine conducted further negotiations. For example, regarding the automotive industry, we have achieved the best possible conditions. The implementation of the agreement extends up to 15 years," Mr. Kozhara said. He added that at today's government meeting were representatives of employers and among them there is also a desire on the signing of the document.

"The Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union in no way directed against the development of cooperation with the Customs Union and the Russian Federation," the Minister said. He informed that Ukraine is in talks with the Customs Union and its member states. The Government of Ukraine is studying the fundamental charter agreement, which we can join today.

Leonid Kozhara also added that Ukraine is in talks on creation of free trade with other countries namely Israel, Turkey and other countries.