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Füle: EU has not postponed association agreement signing

Füle: EU has not postponed association agreement signing
Speaking at "The situation of the news media in Russia and the Eastern Partnership countries " workshop held in the European Parliament, European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood  Štefan Füle said that the signing the Association Agreement with Ukraine has not been postponed.

"We have not postponed the signing. The agreement comprises more than thousand pages. We have initialed the agreement in late March, and now the legal work on every word, phrase, and page is being carried out," the Commissioner said.

However, he noted that while the preparatory work is going on, some questions arises, including the issue on political environment in Ukraine, which can obstruct not only signing but  ratifying the new agreement as well.

"Political conditions have never been related to the certain person. They are related to the fact that Ukraine has a problem with the rule of law and certain other principles," Füle said.

He noted that the EU is, of course, concerned that being imprisoned for a long time the former Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko has not received adequate care. However, he assesses the situation in the country not only through the prism of this issue.

"For example, if you look at the freedom of expression rating you will see that Ukraine has not progressed, but rather regressed and this is the cause for a concern," Füle mentioned.