Ukraine has failed to sign an association agreement with the European Union, RBK-Ukraine reports.
The ceremonial signing of documents at the Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius (Lithuania) was scheduled for Friday morning. Georgia and Moldova officially initialed their association agreements with the European Union during this ceremony, but Ukraine did not sign any document, not even the framework agreement of intent that some political experts expected it to sign.
The issue of signing the association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union remained intriguing until the end. European diplomats encouraged the intrigue by saying that the agreement could still be signed on November 29 despite numerous statements by representatives of Ukraine that European integration had been suspended. The main optimists were Baltic and Polish politicians, who are traditionally the main advocates of European integration of Ukraine.
As reported, preparations for the signing of the document took place over several years and involved some key changes to the legislation of Ukraine, as well as resolution of the issue of selective justice, particularly the jailing for former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko. In the past few years, the country's leadership and President Viktor Yanukovych personally have repeatedly stressed that the country's policy of European integration and future membership of the European Union, the first step toward which was to become an associate member of the European Union, remained unchanged.
However, the Cabinet of Ministers decided to suspend the preparations for the signing of the association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union on November 21.
