Interfax: Ukraine chooses European integration – Prime Minister Azarov

KYIV. Dec 16 (Interfax) – Ukraine has made a final choice in its foreign policy vector – integration with Europe, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said.

“As we are told, the door to the European Union is open for us, same as the door of the Customs Union. That is very good, because we have a choice and we will make our choice, we have already made it: [our choice] is the path of European integration,” he told the Inter channel in an interview on Sunday night.

European Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Fule wrote on Twitter on Sunday that the European Union was suspending work with the Ukrainian government on the Association Agreement.

“Words & deeds of President [Viktor Yanukovych] & government regarding the Association Agreement are further & further apart. Their arguments have no grounds in reality,” he tweeted on Sunday.

Writing of relations with Ukraine he recalled that he recently talked to Deputy Prime Minister Sergiy Arbuzov in Brussels. “After that, further discussion is conditioned on clear commitment to sign. Work on hold, had no answer,” Fule’s post says.

Meanwhile, Azarov’s press secretary Vitaliy Lukyanenko said that Kyiv was set to continue negotiations with the European Union.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said that the door was “wide open” to the signing of the Ukraine-EU association agreement.