EU deal remains Ukraine’s priority, but more time needed – president

(Interfax – November 29, 2013) The signing of an association agreement with the EU remains Ukraine’s priority, President Viktor Yanukovych has said.

The Interfax-Ukraine news agency quoted him at 1122 gmt on 29 November as telling its correspondent following the EU’s Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius: “This document is a priority. However, there remain very many important conditions needed for it to be signed.”

Yanukovych, who, citing economic reasons, failed to sign the agreement in Vilnius, continued: “As regards terms and conditions for solving the problematic issues which exist in Ukraine today, they should definitely be discussed. So we agreed with the leadership of the European Commission that we would return to bilateral discussions of this issue in the near future.”

He added that it would only be possible to say when the agreement could be signed once all these problems were discussed.

“We of course want the issue of financial and economic aid for Ukraine to top our agenda. This is one of the most important issues,” he explained.

Yanukovych also said that Ukraine sought to unblock the signing of an agreement on strategic partnership with Russia, Interfax-Ukraine reported at 1139 gmt the same day.

He added that Ukraine had suggested holding trilateral negotiations with the EU and Russia in order to address the latter’s concerns regarding the association agreement between Kiev and Brussels.

“I am convinced that there is a multitude of issues which we, Ukraine, the EU and Russia, should be settling together,” Yanukovych said. “We should find a way that would benefit the three.”

He reiterated that the Ukrainian economy should not incur losses resulting from disagreements with its partners.

Yanukovych also said that the Vilnius summit helped Ukraine understand its prospects.

“The Eastern Partnership summit was, no doubt, very important for us for understanding and imagining Ukraine’s future,” Interfax-Ukraine quoted him at 1157 gmt as saying.

“We today got one answer: that the EU doors are open and that we have time which we should use to find an answer about conditions on which Ukraine should take its next step,” he concluded.