Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Ian Tombinski has said he still hopes that the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement will be signed at the Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius this November.

"I learned to be patient, because I'm the father of ten children. So I don't lose hope. But May is not the end of everything. Certain progress with reforms and concrete steps for the long term should be shown by this time. It's obvious that it's impossible to reform the country in a few weeks," the diplomat said in an interview with the Korrespondent magazine, which was published on March 22, 2013.

He added that the month of May is important, because the European Commission will hold a meeting this month, during which commissioners from all countries are to formally approve the Association Agreement and ask the member states and the European Parliament to give a mandate to sign the document at the summit in Vilnius in November.

"But today, I would say, we're very far from a positive decision by commissioners," Tombinski said.

When asked about Ukraine's possible integration into the Customs Union, the European diplomat said that Ukrainians should recognize what will help modernize the economy, and which of the unions will provide the best conditions for that.

"It's enough to look at some key economic figures to understand that European integration is a more effective way to make the economy competitive. The Customs Union gives a miracle in the form of low gas prices. But Ukraine had all that for a long time. Did it help modernize the economy and make it more competitive in the international markets? No," he added.