Brussels, 29/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - On 29 January, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel called for the protesters in Ukraine - who are defending European values - to be heard. “Many people have shown, through their courageous protests since the European summit on the Eastern Partnership in Vilnius at the end of November, that they did not want to turn their back on the European Union. On the contrary, they are fighting for the same values that we hold within the EU and they must be heard”, she told the German Bundestag. “Thanks to the pressure of the protests, serious negotiations in total transparency are becoming possible between the government and the opposition on the necessary political reforms”, Merkel added. Meanwhile, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton was in Kiev on 29 January to meet Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych, the leaders of the opposition and civil society. The former Ukrainian president, Leonid Kravchuk, stressed that his country is “on the edge of civil war” and he called on the members of the Ukrainian Parliament to do everything to exit the crisis. (CG/transl.fl)