Handelsbesprekingen met Georgië en Moldavië gestart (en)

On Monday in Brussels, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and EU Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht i placed their signatures on documents enabling the start of trade negotiations with Georgia and Moldova. At the signing ceremony both countries were represented by their Prime Ministers, Nika Gilauri and Vlad Filat.

‘This is yet another matter we can enter in the ‘completed’ column during the Polish Presidency i,’ remarked the Polish Foreign Minister. ‘Technical talks are due to be launched in January, and formal rounds of negotiations will get under way in the first quarter of next year.’

The start of negotiations on a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Zone with Georgia and Moldova had been one of the priorities of the Polish Presidency and one of the main points of Warsaw’s Eastern Partnership Summit Declaration. The negotiations have also resulted from the efforts of Georgia and Moldova as well as their intensive cooperation with the European Commission.

The commercial rapprochement of those Eastern Partnership countries with the European Union and their opening up to a market of 500 million consumers marks a step forward in the European integration process.