Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Ian Tombinski has said he still hopes that the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement will be signed at the Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius this November.
“I learned to be patient, because I’m the father of ten children. So I
don’t lose hope. But May is not the end of everything. Certain progress
with reforms and concrete steps for the long term should be shown by
this time. It’s obvious that it’s impossible to reform the country in a
few weeks,” the diplomat said in an interview with the Korrespondent
magazine, which was published on March 22, 2013.
He added that the month of May is important, because the European
Commission will hold a meeting this month, during which commissioners
from all countries are to formally approve the Association Agreement and
ask the member states and the European Parliament to give a mandate to
sign the document at the summit in Vilnius in November.
“But today, I would say, we’re very far from a positive decision by commissioners,” Tombinski said.
When asked about Ukraine’s possible integration into the Customs
Union, the European diplomat said that Ukrainians should recognize what
will help modernize the economy, and which of the unions will provide
the best conditions for that.
“It’s enough to look at some key economic figures to understand that
European integration is a more effective way to make the economy
competitive. The Customs Union gives a miracle in the form of low gas
prices. But Ukraine had all that for a long time. Did it help modernize
the economy and make it more competitive in the international markets?
No,” he added.
