Kyiv Post, Ukraine

Rybak says EU-Ukraine Association Agreement can be signed without FTA

23 December 2013

by Interfax-Ukraine

Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Rybak has said he does not rule out the possibility of signing an Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU without the creation of a free trade area (FTA).

"I think that such options can also be considered, and consultations on this issue are currently underway. Two commissions are working," he told reporters after a roundtable meeting in Kyiv on Friday.

He also said that Ukraine was interested in developing markets of interaction, both with the EU and with Russia.

However, when asked by reporters about the credibility of statements made by Russian President Vladimir Putin that preferences were granted to Ukraine solely in the context of brotherly relations between the two countries, Rybak said: "If we are brothers, then I take the money and give it to you as a brother, but when they issue a loan at an interest rate that must be repaid these are economic relations between the two states."