The Ukrainian issue was pushed into the background of the agenda of the EU Foreign Affairs Council's meeting on November 19.

At a press conference which followed the meeting in Brussels on Monday evening and lasted less than 15 minutes, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Vice-President of the European Commission Catherine Ashton did not say a word about the Ukrainian issue.

The main topic was the conflict in Israel and Palestine. Ashton could not answer to other questions as the press conference was declared to be over.

The Web site of the Council doesn't mention Ukraine, either.

A source in the EU Council said that the debate on the situation in Gaza took a lot of time and therefore Ukraine received not as much time as planned.

According to him, the foreign ministers discussed the recent parliamentary elections in Ukraine and the prospects of the Association Agreement. In particular, some countries said that the elections in Ukraine were not bad, but they could have been better.

Speaking about the Association Agreement, they said that the document was not ready for signing from a purely technical point of view, and it would take several months to prepare it. "Even Commissioner Fule (Stefan Fule) could not give a specific date when the document will be ready," the official said.

In addition, during the discussion suggestions were voiced that for the signing of the Association Agreement for Ukraine needed to fulfill specific conditions. Representatives of some countries demanded stricter conditions, others were for less rigorous ones.

The EU Council is expected to take a formal decision on Ukraine in December.