Polish foreign minister voices doubt on Ukraine EU pact

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski expressed doubt at the Wroclaw Global Forum on June 14 that the Ukrainian government will be ready to sign the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement in November. “We proposed the Association Agreement to Ukraine, but we don’t know yet whether it will be signed or if Ukraine will be ready for it,” Sikorski said, as reported by Polska Agencja Prasowa. “But we hope the trade portion will be implemented as soon as possible.”

Zenon Zawada: The EU approved the creation of the Free Trade Area with Ukraine last year. Yet when doing so, EU leaders also expressed clearly that the FTA can’t take effect without the Ukrainian government adopting the political principles of the Association Agreement. Sikorksi could have been voicing some wishful thinking. Yet the doubts expressed in recent weeks by the foreign ministers of Poland and Lithuania – among the biggest advocates of Ukrainian integration in the EU – reflects the worsening prospects that the Ukrainian government is facing.