You're reading: Ukraine can’t sign Association Agreement with EU due to problems with rule of law, says Kravchuk

 Ukraine cannot get closer to the European Union and sign the Association Agreement with it due to the problems connected with the rule of law in the country, particularly due to the absence of real judicial reform, First Ukrainian President (1991-1994) Leonid Kravchuk said on Channel 5 on February 2.

According to him, representatives of the Customs Union [of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan] are trying to use the situation for their benefit and make Ukraine refuse from its way towards European integration. Kravchuk stressed that the signing of the Association Agreement could draw the line under the issue.

“We have very big problems connected with the rule of law, democracy, and human rights. These problems deprived us of a chance to join the EU quickly and completely. We have not joined it yet and so far we cannot even associate with it. Meanwhile, the Customs Union is always open to us… If we have signed the Association Agreement, we would have stopped discussing this with Russia, and everything would have become clear,” Kravchuk said.