Brussels – The European Union wants good relations between Kyiv and Moscow and believes that Ukraine may make partial commitments with the Customs Union that do not conflict with its obligations under the Association Agreement, EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fuele has said.
He said this in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine ahead of his trip to Ukraine scheduled for February 7-8.
“No one should have any doubt that good relations with neighbors, including Russia, are in the interests of Ukraine and in the interests of Brussels,” he said.
Speaking about the Customs Union, Fule said that membership of this organization takes away from a member state its sovereign rights to conduct an external trade policy.
“And this is a very serious step. We cannot enter into association agreement commitments with a country that does not have the sovereign right to take decisions on its external trade policy in its own hands. We cannot enter into a relationship with Ukraine knowing that a decision is being made somewhere else by someone else,” the European Commissioner said.
“At the same time, we made it clear that if there is any possibility for Ukrainians to participate in the specific provisions of the Customs Union that would not contradict the commitments stemming from the association agreement that the Ukrainian side has already initialed, we would not have a problem with it. That would of course require intensive consultations just to make sure that indeed such cooperation and relationship with part of the Customs Union policies are fully compatible with the association agreement,” he said.
