EU door ‘remains open’ to Ukraine: Commissioner

The door of the European Union stands open to Ukraine despite Kiev’s last-minute refusal to sign a landmark deal at a summit next week, the EU’s Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele said Friday.

“The doors remain open. We’re not giving up on the Ukrainian people,” Fuele told a small group of journalists, saying the deal could eventually be signed at an EU-Ukraine summit in the first half of 2014 should Kiev have a change of heart.

Fuele said he was warned by President Viktor Yanukovych at talks in Kiev on Tuesday that Ukraine had doubts about signing an Association Agreement with the EU on November 29.

The president “was concerned about the economic situation” and thought a pause in negotiations with Brussels would enable it to address “the problem of contracts broken and licences withdrawn” that had caused a fall of some 25 percent in its exports to Russia.

“In my talks no one referred to the question of (jailed former premier) Yulia Tymoshenko, only to the pressure of Russia,” he said.

Earlier, the EU cold-shouldered Ukraine’s proposal of three-way trade talks with Russia.

“I can only take note” of Ukraine’s proposal of a trilateral commission to resolve trade issues between Kiev, Moscow and the European Union, said Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for the EU’s foreign service.

Pressed repeatedly by journalists on the possibility of a three-way forum, the spokeswoman stressed that the planned accord was “a bilateral agreement between the EU and Ukraine”.

“Russia is a very important partner for us and we will continue to consult with them,” Kocijancic said, highlighting the EU’s separate relationship with Moscow.

Fuele said Yanukovych had told him he would attend next week’s November 28 and 29 summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, and would “talk about these issues” with leaders of the 28-nation EU and the six ex-Soviet states at the talks.

He rejected the idea that Ukraine’s sudden rebuttal of the deal with the EU was a stinging reverse for the bloc’s bid to build an Eastern Partnership with the former Communist nations.

“The Eastern Partnership is a succussful policy of the EU that’s not going to end with the Ukraine government’s pause,” he said.