President Victor Yushchenko’s visit to Hungary on July 10-11 has reinforced Ukraine’s partnership with this EU state, his deputy chief of staff, Oleksandr Chalyy, told a news conference on Thursday, according to the President`s press-office.
“Hungary has publicly and frankly expressed its support for Ukraine’s EU aspirations,” he said, adding that its leaders insist that Ukraine’s enhanced cooperation agreement with the EU should contain a membership promise.
Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom will visit Ukraine in 2008 to sign a few important agreements and discuss ways to implement the 1993 Agreement on Environmental Protection, he said. “We need to bring it in line with the new requirements of our cooperation, particularly in the Carpathian region,” he said and added that there would be a ministerial meeting between Ukraine and Hungary to boost ecological cooperation in the region.
President Yushchenko is scheduled to hold talks on border and energy cooperation with Hungary’s Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány on July 27 in Mukachevo. The two countries have also agreed to open new border crossing stations as part of the project to build the 5th transportation corridor, he said.
Chalyy described the presence of Ukrainian investors on the Hungarian market as a “new feature of our foreign policy.” Ukraine and Hungary also plan to unify their educational procedures.
Chalyy said President Yushchenko was going to sign a memory declaration with Ukraine’s neighbors, particularly Romania, Poland and Slovakia, as part of his new humanitarian project, One Europe: One Memory. (Yushchenko signed such a declaration in Budapest yesterday).
