EU calls for Ukraine agreement, FTA by end-2011

The European Parliament (EP) yesterday passed a resolution calling for a swift initialling of an Association Agreement with Ukraine (including a Free Trade Agreement), preferably by end-2011. A bitter pill for the Ukrainian government is that the resolution calls for a possible suspension of the agreement should its fundamental principles be breached. The document also urges the Ukrainian government to overturn the recent conviction of ex-PM Yulia Tymoshenko and allow for her full participation in politics. In related news, President Viktor Yanukovych confirmed he will participate in the Ukraine-EU Summit on December 19, denying earlier rumors that he planned to take part in the EurAsEC (the Russia-led economic union) summit on the same date. Vitaliy Vavryshchuk: The EP resolution is not binding and mainly signals the EU’s commitment to furthering political and economic ties with Ukraine. At the same time, the head of the EU representative office in Ukraine noted  a week ago that the 1,800-page text still needs some technical work and the Association Agreement is unlikely to be initialized at the coming EU-Ukraine summit, according to the Kommersant business daily. To avoid an impasse, the two sides could announce the completion of association talks on December 19 and proceed with procedural issues in 2012. The document should then be ready for ratification by EU member states by the start of 2013.