Ukraine Suspends Preparations for Entering the EU

BBC
November 21, 2013

The Ukraine: If it combines with Germany and France, everyone will be equal.
The Ukraine: If it combines with Germany and France, everyone will be equal.
Ukraine has suspended preparations for a trade deal with the EU.

A government statement said the decision had been taken to protect Ukraine’s “national security”.

Hours earlier MPs rejected a bill that would have allowed jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko to leave the country – which the EU had demanded as a condition for the deal to proceed.

Ukraine had come under intense pressure from Russia not to sign the historic EU deal at a summit next week.

The Ukrainian government said on Thursday that it was instead looking into setting up a joint commission to promote ties between Ukraine, Russia and the European Union.

Russia wants Ukraine to join its own customs union with Kazakhstan and Belarus, which it sees as a prototype rival to the European Union.

Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych was later quoted by AFP as saying Ukraine “will work further on this path, this path to EU integration”, although it is not clear how this tallies with the suspension of preparations for the deal.

Shouts of ‘shame’

On Thursday MPs threw out six drafts of the bill which would have allowed Tymoshenko to travel abroad for medical treatment.

The EU is sending a top envoy to Kiev.

Stefan Fuele, European commissioner for enlargement, is travelling to the Ukrainian capital on Thursday, for the second time this week.

The bill failed to pass after MPs from President Viktor Yanukovych’s ruling Regions Party refused to cast their votes on any of the six proposed drafts.

The drafts all fell short of the 226 votes needed.

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