The investigation into the gas supply case against former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko cannot be linked to talks on signing an association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, EU Ambassador to Ukraine Jose Manuel Pinto Teixeira has said.
"Now we expect and want to end these negotiations by the end of this year. We do not link these two processes," he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Monday.
He said that Kyiv and the EU had a common goal of concluding the negotiations by the end of 2011. He said that European diplomats would regularly attend court hearings on the gas case and monitor the situation.
He also recalled a recent statement made by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton regarding the EU's concern over criminal cases against opposition members, as well as a respective statement by the European Parliament.
"And this must be understood as the EU expressing particular concern about these processes," Teixeira said.
He noted that the gas contract signed by Tymoshenko in 2009 "resolved a gas crisis that had created disruption in gas supplies to EU countries."
The EU ambassador also mentioned the conditions put forward by Russia in January 2009 regarding a rise in market-oriented prices for natural gas.
