The hysterical reaction of European officials thwarted the plans of the Ukrainian government

Realizing that the Association Agreement would hit the Ukrainian economy, Azarov’s government prepared a memorandum for the Vilnius summit that allowed the European integration process to continue, but European politicians did not consider this option.

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Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara stated this during questioning at a court hearing in the Yanukovych treason case, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

He said that the government group had brought a draft memorandum to the Vilnius summit.

“But due to the sharp, sometimes even beyond diplomatic, reaction of the EU, as well as the position of individual EU leaders, sometimes there was a hysterical reaction, the EU was unable to make a decision on signing. Although there were also supporters of signing this document.
This document was officially handed over to EU representatives, responsible members of the European Commission, who could decide to sign this document later,” the diplomat noted.

According to him, this document could establish further dialogue with the EU, since Ukraine emphasized that it was not refusing, but postponing the signing of the association agreement to another time.

“But we must take into account the fact of the internal political situation in the EU,” Kozhara added. – In 2014, elections to the European Parliament were planned. Many European officials were already actually campaigning for elections. Many personal ambitions of EU leaders were associated with the signing. In fact, ambitions derailed the signing in November 2013. The EU’s unwillingness to work out a common position on the possibility of concluding such a document, as well as the ambitions of individual European politicians, did not allow us to sign this document, which could have been an interim document before the signing of the association agreement.”