DAVOS - Ukraine has fallen off the path of rapprochement with the European Union and found itself at a crossroads, according to Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt.
"The question is: can Ukraine return to the path of European integration, or we are stuck at what is in fact a departure from European integration?" he said on Friday during the 8th Davos Ukrainian Lunch organized by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation.
Bildt noted that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe had clearly expressed its position that the signing of an association agreement with the EU now depended on how long the former Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko remained in prison.
The minister said he did not hear the explanation of this situation in the speech of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Bildt added that Tymoshenko’s case was not the only one, but the most famous of those that cast doubt on the rule of law in Ukraine.
Member of the European Parliament Marek Siwiec, in turn, noted that the main challenge for Ukraine in 2012 would be the elections.
"If they are free, then Ukraine may become the part of Europe, otherwise that’s all – that’s the end of the dream."
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