The European Union is ready to discuss issues that are of concern to “Ukraine’s neighbors” in the format of bilateral talks, a spokesman for Stefan Fule, EU’s Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy, has said.
Speaking to the Ukrainian TV channel 1+1, Fule’s spokesman, Peter Stano, said the EU was willing to discuss the complications surrounding Kiev’s suspended decision to join the European trade zone.
“If Ukraine’s neighbors have some questions, we are ready to settle them on a bilateral basis,” the EU official said.
Stano then stressed that Kiev’s actual signing of the EU-Ukrainian agreement was an issue to be discussed only between the two sides of the deal.
Earlier this week, Ukraine’s proposal for holding trilateral talks with Russia and the EU on the controversial deal was thwarted by Lithuania, currently presiding at the European Council. The country’s Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius said that “we do not see a role for any third country in this process.”
Fule on Saturday claimed that the EU has given a “clear signal” to Ukraine that there will be some financial aid for the Ukrainian economy, should Kiev sign the agreement and enter the EU trade zone.
However, the Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov on Sunday reiterated that, despite repeated requests for help from the EU, only a “word-of-mouth promise” of just 1 billion euro aid within the next 7 years has come from the European block.
