Brussels, 14/12/2011 (Agence Europe) - The EU-Ukraine Summit will indeed take place on 19 December 2011 as planned, but the initialling of an association agreement will probably be postponed because some countries are unhappy about the idea.
The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, will be attending the EU-Ukraine Summit in Kiev, confirmed several diplomatic sources on Wednesday 14 December. However, reluctance from a number of EU countries will prevent the initialling of an association agreement that has been under negotiation since 2007. The trade aspects have been agreed upon for a few weeks now, but the lack of political will in the EU will mean that the political section will not be finalised, especially following problems in the Ukraine over democracy and the rule of law, including the controversial imprisonment of by former prime minister Iulia Tymoshenko.
Ukraine's ambassador to the EU, Kostiantyn Elyseev, told a press conference on Wednesday that Ukraine is firmly committed to initial the draft association agreement at the summit, but there was not the political will to do so from the EU. He said that technical issues could have been settled a long time ago if there had been the desire to do so. Following a visit to Kiev on Monday, where he held a long meeting with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Füle said the talks would be finalised at the 19 December summit. Füle visited the prison where Tymoshenko has been held since August 2011.
EU diplomacy is hiding behind long administrative procedures and legal niceties that require more time, but the EU has made its opposition clear elsewhere to the political proceedings against the former prime minister and head of the opposition (condemned to seven years' imprisonment in October) and the way opponents of the Yanukovich regime are being treated. (EH/transl.fl)