Brussels, 19/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 19 December, the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, stated that although negotiations for the association agreement between the EU and Ukraine had been officially finalised, the signing of the agreement would depend on “political circumstances”. At the end of the EU-Ukraine summit, Van Rompuy explained: “we want to move forward to sign and ratify the association agreement as quickly as possible but this will depend on political circumstances”. He explained that global reform of the justice system was absolutely essential and “our main concerns are, above all, linked to risks of a politically motivated justice system. The Timoshenko trial is the most blatant example of this”. He reminded the Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych, that respect for democracy and the rule of law “is decisive for the pace and scale of EU-Ukraine rapprochement and signing and ratifying the association agreement”. Yanukovych explained that he would not intervene to reduce the sentence on the former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, because this was a question for the courts. (CG/transl.fl)