You're reading: Foreign Ministry hopes to sign association agreement with EU in 2012

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry is planning to sign an association agreement with the EU by the end of this year, the director of the ministry's information policy department, Oleh Voloshyn, has said.

“We very much hope that after the parliamentary elections are held in
accordance with the highest standards, we will be able to move to the
signing of the association agreement with the EU by the end of the
year,” he said at a conference, entitled “The parliamentary elections in
Ukraine and the prospects for European integration,” in Kyiv on
Thursday.

He added that the upcoming elections would influence the future fate of this document.

“The way the elections are held is the main criterion according to
which the European Parliament and the EU will assess the presence or
absence of democracy in Ukraine and the presence or absence of
conditions for the signing of the association agreement,” Voloshyn said.