The European Union is willing to maintain dialogue with Russia to convince it that an EU-Ukraine Association Agreement will not harm its economic interests, but it will not hold tripartite negotiations on the matter, European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule said.

The Association Agreement in itself is a bilateral issue between the EU and Ukraine, and, as European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said at a recent Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius, the time for limited sovereignty in Europe is gone, Fule said at a European Parliament session in Strasbourg on Tuesday.