President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has met with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, during which he noted the importance of signing the agreement on a Common Aviation Area (the so-called open skies agreement) between Ukraine and the European Union and asked his Spanish counterpart to facilitate resolution of the issues hindering the signing of this document. The Interfax Ukraine news agency reported this on Friday, citing the press service of the president of Ukraine.
Poroshenko and Rajoy also discussed the issue of implementation of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union.
As reported, Ukraine and the European Union have already postponed the signing of the Common Aviation Area agreement, which was initialed in Vilnius in November last year, several times. The last time it was expected to be signed was on June 27, along with the Association Agreement. The official reason for the delay in signing it is failure to agree the positions of Spain and the United Kingdom on the dispute over sovereignty over the territory in which the Gibraltar airport is situated.
The agreement on common aviation area stipulates that all EU airlines will be able to operate direct flights to Ukraine from anywhere in the EU from the IATA summer scheduling season 2015 (from March 31) and that the same will apply to Ukrainian airlines. All limitations on weekly flights between Ukraine and the EU will also be removed. The competition is expected to facilitate establishment of market prices for all the flights.
