Foreign Ministry sure Ukraine-EU Summit to be held, but not in 2012 (updated)

The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine has said it is sure that the EU-Ukraine Summit will be held, but not in 2012.

"We will schedule a date later, but we have no doubt that the summit will be held," the director of the Ukraine's Foreign Ministry information policy department, Oleh Voloshyn, said at a news briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.

He added that it is impossible to hold the summit in 2012 for certain technical reasons. Particularly, Voloshyn noted that the EU is waiting for the end of the formation of a new parliament in Ukraine.

"The summit is not just a meeting of the president with EU officials. It is a real dialogue at the level of heads of states, and a discussion of the whole range of relations," he said.

Voloshyn added that, according to the most optimistic scenario, when Ukraine forms its parliament and possibly a new membership of the Cabinet of Ministers, Europe will be celebrating the Christmas holidays, and no one will hold any events there, and after that Ukraine will celebrate its own New Year and Christmas holidays.

The diplomat said the summit is an important event that requires serious preparation.

According to him, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has no doubts that the EU-Ukraine Summit will be held and thinks that it is important that is has specific content.

"Another questions is what are we going to discuss at this summit, what agreements will be signed, and whether they will be signed at all," Voloshyn said.

According to him, no one ever said in the EU that the summit would never be held.

"This is a dialogue mechanism and no one is giving it up. Now it's EU's turn to host the summit, they are the host country, and they should schedule a date for the event," he said.