Fule: Window of opportunity for Ukraine is limited

European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule said that there is no alternative to the signing of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement at Vilnius summit, adding that the window of opportunity for this is limited.

In this regard, he called on the Ukrainian authorities to take decisive actions.

The European commissioner said this at the end of the meeting of the EU-Ukraine Cooperation Council, which took place in Luxembourg on Monday, Interfax reported.

"I can give a short answer: we do not work with the ‘ifs’ we are committed to create the conditions for signing the agreement by the summit in Vilnius. But I can repeat my previous statement that I made when I was in Ukraine, let us focus on Vilnius, because we do not have a plan B," he said.

The European commissioner stressed that there is a window of opportunity, but it is limited, and there is no plan B, if Ukraine and the EU miss the goal of Vilnius summit.

In this regard, Fule said that Ukraine has done certain progress on this path, referring to the pardon of former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, the recent findings of the Venice Commission concerning the amendments to the Constitution, which are aimed at strengthening the independence of judiciary.

"However, more needs to be done, so that Ukraine should demonstrate significant progress and decisive actions towards meeting all the conditions outlined by the EU. The EU will assess the progress of Ukraine and the possibility to sign the Association Agreement in early autumn. Time is short," the commissioner said.