Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has said that Ukraine's full membership of the European Union, even if associate membership is granted, is currently not being discussed.

"Nobody is talking about Ukraine's membership of the European Union. The distance from associate membership to membership is enormous. For example, Turkey received the status of an associate member about 50 years ago, and, in my opinion, the Turkish authorities are now tired of this process, and sometimes they state that maybe they will not actively speed up this process. Turkey is developing separately, has its own quite concrete interests, signed a free trade agreement with the European Union, and so on," Azarov said in an interview with the Belarusian television news agency on Wednesday.

However, he said that it's difficult to imagine "how the Association Agreement with the European Union could hinder the development of our relations as part of the Commonwealth of Independent States."

Speaking about a memorandum on Ukraine's participation in the work of the Customs Union, the signing of which is scheduled for May 31 in Minsk at a meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of Government, Azarov said that "we are not planning to confine ourselves, say, only to the observer status."

"The Ukrainian government has currently set up a group of rather competent experts who are studying the possibility of Ukraine's accession to a number of agreements that create the legal framework of the Customs Union and in consequence will create the legal framework of the Common Economic Space," Azarov said.

He noted that the status of an observer helps participate in decision-making not with the right of a casting vote, but with the right of an advisory vote.

"It's very important the fact that Ukraine will have information about upcoming decisions and will have the opportunity to anticipate the adoption of negative decisions for itself at the diplomatic level and at the level of contacts with the leadership of countries... This will work to help strengthen relations between Ukraine and the Customs Union," Azarov said.