You're reading: Lavrov slams European parliamentarian’s comments on Ukraine’s relations with Customs Union

 Moscow - European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Elmar Brok's statement about impossibility for Ukraine to join the Belarusian-Kazakh-Russian Customs Union is a sign of either his incompetence or partiality, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

“He came to Kyiv and said: President [Viktor] Yanukovych did the
right thing by not going to Moscow. Because accession to the Customs
Union and any relations with the Customs Union in general go directly
against [Ukraine’s] movement toward integration into Europe,” Lavrov
said.

The Russian minister pointed out that both the Customs Union and the
European Union are based on World Trade Organization’s principles.

“This was said by a politician occupying quite a significant
position, who simply demonstrated his absolute incompetence, because
both the Customs Union and the EU are based on the WTO principles, and
they are absolutely compatible, or perhaps he demonstrated his absolute
partiality, and this means that our relations with the European
Parliament are very poor,” Lavrov said in commenting on Brok’s words.

The European Commission and its executive bodies are “quite reserved
about excesses that European parliamentarians allow themselves,” he
said.

“But this case in itself is simply astonishing, as our neighbors are
being advised – and not even advised but forced – not to befriend the
Customs Union. This is totally out of place,” he said.