European leaders on Monday, Feb.25 gave visiting Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich until May to prove that his government is committed to political reform, conditioning a free trade agreement on improved human rights in the Eastern European country and demanding that it refused to enter a customs union with neighboring Russia.
European Commission president José Manuel Barroso argued that it was “not possible” for Ukraine to deepen relations with Moscow while it seeks to expand trade relations with the West. “What we have to clear about it is one country cannot at the same time be a member of a customs union and be in a deep, common free trade area with the European Union,” he said.
