Ukraine and the European Union intend to initial their Association Agreement in the coming weeks, but its further signing and ratification will depend on developments in Ukraine, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has said.
"We will initial it very soon, but its further signing and ratification will depend on the implementation and compliance with the principle of the rule of law here in Ukraine," Barroso said at the Civil Society Forum "Ukraine-EU summit: public dimension" in Kyiv on Monday.
The European Commission president said it was difficult to predict how events would unfold, but it would depend entirely on Ukraine.
"The future of Ukraine and the EU will depend mostly on you," he said.
In turn, Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin noted that after the completion of the negotiations, the parties will prepare a technical text of the agreement.
"I can say that in a joint statement today we have made a political commitment to prepare the agreement for initialing in the near future. I think this will take several weeks," Klimkin said.
He added that the part of the agreement regarding the free trade area still rather tricky.
The deputy minister noted that the text of the agreement should undergo technical ratification, be translated into all the languages of the European Union, and after this the agreement will be prepared for signing. "And after this they will start preparations for its ratification and the eventual entry into force," he stressed.
