Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine Jose Manuel Pinto Teixeira has said that the association agreement between Ukraine and the EU might not be initialed by the end of this year.
When asked in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine whether there is a risk that the document will not be initialed before the end of the year, the diplomat said, "Of course. As a rule, the agreement is initialed when all of the issues are resolved."
Teixeira noted that the talks on the creation of a free trade area between Ukraine and the EU had already been completed, but in the political part of the agreement, the parties had not reached a compromise regarding the wording in the preamble of the document, and had agreed that this issue should be resolved at the highest level.
He said that the issue concerned Ukraine's desire to reflect its EU membership prospects in the association agreement, which was not earlier practiced by the EU when signing of such agreements.
As for the EU-Ukraine summit, which scheduled for December 19, 2011 in Kyiv, the diplomat said that its participants would raise issues that concern, first and foremost, the EU, including those related to the trials of opposition members.
"We all know that over the past six months and even more, relations between Ukraine and the EU have been marred by politically motivated criminal cases against the former Ukrainian prime minister, the former interior minister and other members of the former government. Compliance with the basic requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights and the rule of law are the things that we expect from Ukraine, and these are the issues that will influence the outcome of the upcoming summit. I think that at the summit these issues will be raised as ones cause major concern to the EU," Teixeira said.
