Regions Party MP Serhiy Kliuyev, a member of Ukraine's permanent delegation to PACE, has said that the European Union wants to sign the Association Agreement with Ukraine.

"The European Union is as interested in the signing of the association agreement with Ukraine as Ukraine itself," Kliuyev's press office quoted him as saying.

He also said that it was important for Ukraine to ensure that the association agreement with the EU is not reduced to a set of declarative provisions.

"Ukraine is primarily interested in expanding further economic cooperation. The visa-free regime and a free trade area between Ukraine and the EU should be the key conditions for signing the agreement on the part of Ukraine," Kliuyev said.

He also said that the free trade area was a logical extension of the EU's economic borders to the east.

"The countries of the European Union get not only duty-free access to the market of the country with a population of 45 million people, but also the prospects of further cooperation on strategically important issues, first and foremost, for the European Union," Kliuyev said.