On June 10 within the framework of participation in a meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Central European Initiative (CEI) in Trieste, Italy, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Kostyantyn Gryschenko met with his Italian counterpart Franco Frattini.

At the beginning of the meeting the Ukrainian Foreign Minister thanked the Government of Italy for the decision to allocate 26 million Euro for the realization of Chornobyl projects, which was announced by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi during the May 28 G8 Summit in Deauville.

The meeting focused on prospects of enlargement of cooperation between Ukraine and Italy in the trade and economic sphere, in particular, through holding a session of the Ukrainian-Italian Council on trade, industrial and financial cooperation in the last quarter of 2011. The parties also agreed to organize a bilateral business forum during the future visit of the Italian Foreign Minister to Ukraine.

The two Ministers exchanged opinions on the ways to step up the cooperation between the countries in the energy domain, in particular in the issues of strengthening energy security of Europe and exchanging of experience in development of energy-saving technologies.

When discussing Ukraine’s European integration Franco Frattini reassured his counterpart of Italy’s full support for the successful completion of the negotiations between Ukraine and the EU on an Association Agreement including the formation of a deep and comprehensive free trade area.