EU Confirms It Wants Donbass Special Status to Be Permanent

The European Union representatives have confirmed that Brussels favors a permanent special status for areas of Donbass currently under control of Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics.

The Ukrayinska Pravda newspaper wrote on Tuesday that the call to give the breakaway areas a permanent special status was made by the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn during a meeting with Ukrainian lawmakers and President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev.

This request was confirmed by the Deputy Chairman of Committee of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Foreign Affairs, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, who said that "Europeans call for the special status of Donbass' strategy proposal not to be limited to three years but to work on a permanent basis."

On Wednesday, the newspaper published an official comment by EU representatives confirming that Brussels' position is to make this status permanent:

"Article 11 of the Package of Measures outlines the agreement in relation to carrying out constitutional reform in Ukraine, including providing for adopting permanent legislation on the special status of certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions until the end of 2015," the comment reads.

Serhiy Sidorenko, author of the Ukrayinska Pravda article, bemoaned the position chosen by Brussels, saying he hoped criticism from both politicians and the media would prompt the EU to change its course.