Seimas ratifies EU deals with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia

87 lawmakers backed the EU deal with Ukraine and 84 voted in favour and one abstained during the vote on the EU association agreements with Georgia and Moldova.

The agreements were signed in Brussels in late June. They were put before parliament for ratification by President Dalia Grybauskaitė after the Cabinet endorsed them last week.

During the Tuesday parliamentary sitting, opposition leader Andrius Kubilius of the Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats suggested allocating funds from the state budget for studies for youth from Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine in Lithuania’s higher schools so that “those countries’ elite could be formed here.”

Meanwhile Social Democratic member of the parliamentary Committee on Economic Affairs Birutė Vsaitė said the Ukrainian market’s approximation to Lithuania is a very good thing for Lithuanian businessmen and also Lithuanian could share its experience with Ukraine.

Ukraine , Georgia and Moldova signed the association agreements with the EU on June 27 during the European Council in Brussels. President Dalia Grybauskaitė signed the deals on behalf of Lithuania.
The then Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign the EU deal at a summit in Vilnius last November, leading to a political crisis in the country.