European Parliament not against EU-Ukraine Association Agreement signing

The European Parliament members gave not a single vote against the signing of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. The only difference, there are those, who advocate for the signing of the document without delay and those, who speak on the implementation of the Ukrainian government conditions voiced by the EU earlier.

In particular, during the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday to discuss the Ukrainian question, the representative of the European People's Party, which is the most critical of the events in Ukraine, Elmar Brok said that the European Parliament "may send a clear message".

"Clearly, it is in the interests of Europe and the Ukrainian people for our relations to improve, these relations should be strengthened. This is the economic and strategic interest of the people and we are open to this possibility. We must show Ukrainians that we want better relations," he said.

Referring to the election problems, imprisonment of Yulia Tymoshenko, the politician said that the EU and Ukraine should cooperate to achieve progress. According to him, if progress is made on issues, "we can to sign the Association Agreement in November 2013 in Vilnius".

Another representative of the EPP Michael Gahler also said that the signing of the Association Agreement is "not an ambitious agenda, it must be the political will of the Ukrainian government" to do everything for the document to be signed.

The representative of the Socialist Group Libor Roucek in his speech stressed that Europe has already recognized Ukraine as the European country. "This is  the reason why we are moving forward with the agreement on association and free trade area. But there are two issues, obstructing the signing," the politician said.

He stressed that the main problems are that of Tymoshenko and the elections, in which "a certain progress was made, but a step back was made also". Therefore, Roucek expressed hope that the Ukrainian leadership will implement the recommendations of the OSCE / ODIHR.

"We would like to sign the Association Agreement in Vilnius (at the Eastern Partnership summit - Ed.) at the latest, but it is up to Ukrainian party," the representative of the Socialists concluded.

Conservative representative Pavel Koval called Europe not to lose time. "This year there has been no EU-Ukraine summit, but there have been two summits with Russia. Our partners are civil society, non-governmental organizations, churches. We have no right to tell them "no", making them wait. Let us sign the Association Agreement as soon as possible," the politician said.