The European Union is not going to drop its demand that former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko be allowed to receive medical treatment abroad in order to persuade Kyiv to sign the Association and Free Trade Area Agreement, European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fuele said.
“As far as the EU is concerned, it has made it clear that one of the conditions for signing the Association Agreement is the need to resolve the issue of selective justice, deal with its consequences and prevent a repeat of such situations in the future, Feule told Interfax ahead of the Eastern Partnership summit, due to open in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Thursday.
The EU official offered his comments in response to a question about whether or not the EU would be ready to show a certain degree of flexibility, including on the issue of Tymoshenko’s possible treatment abroad, in order to sign the Association Agreement with Ukraine.
This will require the Ukrainian leadership’s political will, as well as resolute measures and tangible progress in fulfilling the conditions put forth by the EU in December 2012, he said.
The European commissioner also said that Kyiv had cited national security and commercial concerns among the reasons behind its decision to suspend preparations for the signing of the Association Agreement with the EU.
The EU’s criteria on which important progress had been made were not mentioned by Ukraine, Fuele said.
The EU believes that Ukraine has simply paused the process of signing the Association Accord, he said.
The EU still thinks that Ukraine’s political association and economic integration with the EU, as well as the possibility of signing the Association and Free Trade Area Agreement remain on the table, Fuele said.
