European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia cannot interfere with the process of amending the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement.
This is stated in Barroso's letter to Putin that was sent on Wednesday in response to Putin's letter of September 17, reports GHN based on Ukrinform.
"I take however this opportunity to underline that the Association Agreement remains a bilateral agreement and that, in line with international law, any adaptations to it can only be made at the request of one of the parties and with the agreement of the other, according to the mechanisms foreseen in the text and the respective internal procedures of the parties," reads the letter.
Barroso said that the EU side had expressed great concern over the recent adoption of a decree by the Russian government proposing new trade barriers between Russia and Ukraine, despite the September 12 agreement to postpone until January 1, 2016 the provisional application of a deep and comprehensive free trade area between the EU and Ukraine.
Barroso said that the European Commission remained fully committed to contribute to a peaceful solution to the crisis in eastern Ukraine and expressed hope that the recent positive steps embodied in the Minsk Protocol of September 5 and the ensuing memorandum from September 19 would be fully implemented, including the monitoring of the Ukrainian-Russian state border and its verification by the OSCE, and the withdrawal of all foreign armed formations and military equipment from the Ukrainian territory.
As reported, on September 17, Putin sent a letter to Barroso, demanding that the text of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement be amended.