ODESA, NOVEMBER 14th, 2013, CONTEXT-PRICHERNOMORIE ― The director of the National Institute for Strategic Studies in Odesa Artem Fylypenko considers that the signing of the Association Agreement with the EU will help in the creation of marine policy in Ukraine, Context-Prichernomorie correspondent reports.

Mr Fylypenko noted yesterday, 13 November, during the round-table discussion: “A free trade area with the EU: regional expectations on the eve of the signing of the Association Agreement”.

“We have many opportunities to improve relations with the EU. A classic example is the EU Strategy for the Danube Region. It is planned to establish freight traffic on the Danube and increase it by 20 % by 2020. But Ukraine ignored these works many times. Ukraine should think about increasing traffic. So ports should be actively developed... Danube ports are in decline, which is also connected with the state of the infrastructure. Meanwhile, loads go through Russian ports. There is no maritime policy in Ukraine. There are different elements, but they are not associated with regional needs. The strategy of development of ports is separate, fisheries development strategy is also separately and so on. I think that after the signing of the Association the maritime policy will appear and will be developed in Ukraine,” the expert noted.