The countries participating in the Initiative of the Trimorje, known as the Trimorje, have created a new format of partnership and granted Ukraine the status of a participating partner.
This was announced by Polish President Andrzej Duda at the summit of the Trimorje countries on Monday in Riga, reports TVN 24.
Unlike the strategic partnership linking the Trimorje countries with the U.S., Britain or the European Commission, the new form of partnership is addressed to potential EU member states.
"We decided to create a special new type of partnership with the Trimorje Initiative - in addition to a strategic partnership - a partnership through participation. This is a new type of partnership that is not just for Ukraine. We gave it to Ukraine today, but we assume that the same kind of partnership can be shared by those countries in Central Europe that are not members of the European Union but aspire to join it," Duda said.
He added that countries that will be on their way to join the European Union will be able to apply for such a format of partnership with the Trimorje Initiative.
Duda stressed that all of the countries of the Trimester are in favor of granting Ukraine official EU candidate status.
"I hope that a decision on this will be made by the European Council this week - at the end of the week, because there will be a meeting of this council then," the Polish president said.
Ukraine has repeatedly expressed its desire to join the Trimorje.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was invited to take part in the Trimorje summit as a guest via video link, said that Ukraine should become a full participant in the Three Seas Initiative.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that without independent Ukraine, the Three Seas Initiative would not be possible.
The Three Seas Initiative was established in 2016 by Duda and his then-Croatian counterpart Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic as a platform for economic cooperation between Central European EU countries. It counts twelve European Union states along a north-south axis from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic and Black Seas, hence the name.
