President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with President of the European Council Charles Michel who is on a visit to our country to participate in the inaugural summit of the Crimea Platform.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Charles Michel for the unanimous support of the European Union and the EU member states for the Crimea Platform initiative and the declaration of the summit.
"Once again, I want to thank you for supporting Ukraine, our sovereignty and independence. And today's step - the signing and support of the Crimea Platform and declaration - is just a detail and a puzzle in support of our sovereignty and territorial integrity, because Crimea is Ukraine," the President said.
The parties agreed to coordinate efforts with other international partners in the framework of further work of the Crimea Platform, the ultimate goal of which is the deoccupation of the peninsula.
The leaders of Ukraine and the EU discussed the preparations for the 23rd Ukraine-EU summit, which will take place on October 12 in Kyiv. Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke about the expectations of the Ukrainian side regarding the key results of this summit, as well as about the main elements of the draft Joint Statement of the Summit.
"I hope we will finally be able to sign the long-awaited Common Aviation Area Agreement and start implementing it. We are also waiting for the mission of EU experts within the second phase of the assessment of Ukrainian standardization and metrology institutions to move towards concluding an agreement on the so-called industrial visa-free regime," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
The interlocutors paid special attention to energy security issues in Europe. The President stressed the need to further oppose the completion of the Nord Stream 2 project, which, if launched, would lead to an escalation of security and political threats not only for Ukraine, but also for the whole of Europe.
Given the participation in the meeting of the Executive Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis, the parties discussed the prospects of receiving the second tranche of macro-financial assistance in the amount of 600 million euros.