Release of ex-PM Timoshenko major step towards association agreement with EU

The release of Ukraine’s former prime minister Yulia Timoshenko would be a major step towards an association agreement with the European Union, Linas Linkevicius, the Foreign Minister of Lithuania, which is currently chairing the EU Council, said on Tuesday after a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee. According to the Lithuanian foreign minister, certain progress has been achieved on the path of Ukraine’s signing an association and free trade agreement with the European Union. “This document has all the chances to be signed in the autumn, but its perspectives have no automatic force. There is still some work to be done,” the press service of the Lithuanian foreign ministry cites Linkevicius as saying. In his words, if Kiev manages to do everything in due time, Europe will also do its part of the work in time. “The release of Yulia Timoshenko would be a major step,” he noted, pointing to it as a task Brussels would like to see done by Kiev by late November. At the end of the year, Vilnius will host a summit meeting with member countries of the European Union’s program Eastern Partnership. The association agreement with Ukraine can be signed during this summit.