You're reading: Door to Europe open for Ukraine if it complies with European standards, says Fule

European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule has said that the door to Europe is open for Ukraine if the country complies with European standards.

"From the very start we were frank and open with our Ukrainian friends in the issue of the preparation of the Association Agreement and said that the EU and its member states may show understanding and flexibility in many issues. However, there is no room for compromise in the matters related to fundamental democratic values, human rights and freedoms, legislation, judicial independence," he said in an interview with Radio Liberty on Saturday.

"Since January of this year, we have made it clear that we have a strong feeling that there is a selective approach to justice in the case of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. I would formulate this idea, which the European Union has, as follows: ‘We do not sentence and one does not sentence former heads of government to imprisonment just because they perform their political duties. And all the more they should not be sentenced to imprisonment on the basis of the laws that existed in the former communist Soviet Union,’" Fule said.

When asked whether the signing of an association agreement would conflict with Ukraine’s simultaneous entry into the Customs Union, Fule said: "Signing of the agreements on the formation of the free trade areas with Brussels or EU member states – on the one hand, and Moscow and Minsk – on the other is not a problem. However, once we start talking about the extent of the integration, about a much deeper integration in economic and other fields, here you cannot sit on two chairs."

"The obligations arising from the Association Agreement are difficult to combine with the obligations that ensue from the Treaty on the Customs Union, and vice versa. I mean, I think almost mutually exclusive, so that Ukraine could be at the same time an integral part of these two treaties," Fule said adding that Ukraine cannot be a part of these two agreements simultaneously.