You're reading: Ex-Foreign Minister Ohryzko says pause in association with EU is big mistake

Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ohryzko has slammed the Ukrainian government's decision to suspend preparations for the signing of an association agreement with the EU. 

“The first reaction is absolutely negative,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.

“Suspending the process of preparing for signing the association
agreement is stopping the process of Ukraine’s development in the most
appropriate set of states that have demonstrated their successfulness.
This is a definitely huge mistake.”

He also said that “nothing will come out” of a trilateral commission
between EU, Ukraine and Russia, which the Ukrainian government proposes
creating.

“Russia did not plan to work and won’t work in the trilateral
commission,” he said, referring to numerous critical remarks by Russian
representatives regarding such an initiative.

“What concerns the resumption of dialog with the Customs Union is, in
fact, a capitulation before the Customs Union,” Ohryzko said.

However, he said that it was too early to put an end to the future of
Ukraine’s EU integration, because the process of adopting European
integration laws may last until the summit in Vilnius.