Statement of Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Štefan Füle after his visit to Kiev

EU News 34/2014

Kiev, 25 January 2014
MEMO/14/61

Kiev (25 January) – “I visited Ukraine on behalf of President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso and High Representative/ Vice-President Catherine Ashton on Friday and Saturday.

To underline that the EU remains engaged in facilitating a peaceful, negotiated solution out of the crisis, I held talks with President Viktor Yanukovych, leaders of the opposition party Batkivshchyna Arseniy Yatsenyuk, of the party Udar Vitali Klitchko and party Svoboda Oleh Tyahnybok as well as with representatives of the civil society. I have also visited the Maidan square and talked to people there.

 In my talks I conveyed the deep concerns of the EU about the latest developments and underlined the need to end the cycle of violence, to fight against impunity of perpetrators of human rights violations and to continue an inclusive national dialogue to find a way out of the crisis that threatens to further destabilise the country.

My talks in Kiev showed the need for a series of concrete steps to first start to rebuild trust of people by stopping the spiral of violence and intimidation, to be complemented in a second stage by an inclusive political process leading the stability in Ukraine.

I have discussed a series of steps to this end, that could lead to confidence building and to a political process aimed at ending this crisis. I stressed to my Ukrainian partners that the EU would remain engaged in this process assisting them in de-escalating the situation and finding a way out of the crisis, as demonstrated by the scheduled visit of High Representative/Vice-President Cathy Ashton to Kiev next week.

Source and additional information:
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-14-61_en.htm?locale=en

File Photo: Stefan Füle Date: 23/01/2014 Reference: P-024794/00-01 Location: Chişinău - Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova (C)EU, 2014 URL

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