"Ukraine's path of economic integration with the EU, which took five years, is entering the final straight. It remains to overcome the last barriers and withstand the mounting pressure of opponents, and Ukraine will belong to a united European family. New opportunities will open for the people of Ukraine, Lithuania and the whole of Europe," the President said.
Eastern partners' association with Europe will serve to promote democracy in these countries, ensure greater security for the people and business as well as larger economic growth perspectives.
After signing a free trade agreement with Ukraine, Lithuanian enterprises alone would save 45 million litas on customs duties per year. The EU single market of 500 million consumers will open up for Ukraine, while we will have access to a Ukrainian market with additional 45 million consumers. It means new opportunities for commodity and service exports and for job creation. Economic cooperation and trade ties, based on European values, would ensure more secure business investment, more transparent regulation and more liberal public procurement and service markets, fostering fair competition.
According to the President, Ukraine's strategic choice to go the democratic European way has changed it significantly. Great progress has been made and the country practically meets the criteria for signing an Association Agreement with the EU. It remains to solve the selective justice problem, with the former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's imprisonment as the most vivid example of the problem. Ukraine must also continue the legal reform establishing an independent institution to fight corruption, adopting prosecutor and anti-discrimination laws, and improving election laws.
The President noted that with a view to taking an important decision which is crucial for a new-quality phase in the EU's Eastern neighborhood development, Eastern partners, as well as Lithuania - EU presiding member state, are facing not only political pressure but also economic constraints. It is attempted to halt democratic development by imposing restrictions on exports and trade, tightened border checks, and the so-called "chocolate wars" and "milk wars".
Lithuania, according to the President, faces such pressure in respect of its every strategic decision, but it has never yielded. Pressure was used to stop our aspiration for independence, the construction of Būtingė terminal and the ongoing liquefied natural gas terminal project.
Each country must be the architect of its own fortune, the President said.
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