(21 May 2015) Heads of state gathered on Thursday ahead of the European Union's Eastern Partnership summit in Riga to meet with members of their respective party blocs within the European Parliament.
The EU's Eastern Partnership programme engages the block with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
The programme suffered a major setback at the end of 2013 as Ukraine's then-president Viktor Yanukovych withdrew from signing an association agreement and opted for closer links with Moscow and President Vladimir Putin.
Since that meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, the pro-EU government elected after Yanukovych's ouster has learned the costs of turning away from Moscow: Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, large swathes of eastern territory bordering Russia are embroiled in conflict and the nation is in deep economic decline.
In Riga, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said his country was "very appreciative that our process of reform is already highly estimated by the European Union."
Just ahead of the two-day summit in the Latvian capital, the EU promised grants of 200 million euros (223 million US dollars) over the next 10 years to promote small and medium-sized businesses in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
But German Chancellor Angela Merkel dampened the hopes of some that the talks would pave the way for EU membership, saying the Eastern Partnership is not a tool for the bloc's enlargement policy.
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