14.09.2012

Statement of Carl Bildt, Elmar Brok and Štefan Füle after the meeting with the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovich

Statement

of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden Carl Bildt, Chairman of Committee on Foreign Affairs in the European Parliament Elmar Brok and Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Štefan Füle after the meeting with the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovich on the 14th September 2012 in Yalta

„When we met President Yanukovich one year ago we were focusing on the EU- Ukraine relations and obstacles which stood in the way to take full advantage of the great potential of our relationship.

At the meeting today we have stressed the following:

• There should be no room for a pause in the EU-Ukraine relations and no room for compromise on values.
• The issue of selective justice needs to be addressed in order to move ahead to a new level of our relations through the Association Agreement.
• We regret that the consequences of the current situation will prevent two important leaders of the opposition from standing in parliamentary elections following trials which did not respect international standards as regards fair, transparent and independent legal process.
• The legitimacy of the future parliament will depend on the conduct of the elections which need to be free and fair, in accordance with high international standards. In this context we stressed the importance of the freedom of the media.“

For further information:
Elmar BROK, MEP, Tel.: +32-2-2845323