Ukraine gets green light for EU 'association' pact

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has backed French proposals for the EU to sign an "association" pact with Ukraine in September, amid uncertainty over what the move could mean for Ukraine's EU membership aspirations.

"This agreement will not only mean a strengthened partnership. It can also qualify as an associate member agreement," the chancellor said after meeting Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko on a brief visit to Kiev on Monday (21 July).

Her comment came one day before EU foreign ministers come together in Brussels on Tuesday to rubber-stamp plans for the EU-Ukraine summit in Evian, France on 9 September, where the two sides aim to sign the political chapter of a new bilateral deal.

The title "association agreement" - recalling the "association" treaties signed with former eastern bloc countries before the 2004 EU enlargement - would be a diplomatic victory for Kiev, which has pushed for an EU membership perspective since it broke away from the Russian sphere of influence in the 2004 Orange Revolution.

"The discussions relating to the name of the agreement have ended. It's a colossal step," President Yushchenko said after talking with Ms Merkel.

The chancellor's visit itself - the first by a German leader since the Orange uprising - was greeted as a new development in EU-Ukraine relations by some analysts.

"Her predecessor never found his way to Kiev because he was worried by the grievances from Moscow that such a trip would have provoked. Merkel, though, gives less weight to Russia's concerns," the German Marshall Fund's Joerg Himmelreich told RFE/RL.

But despite the warm atmosphere on Monday, Ms Merkel made clear the "association" pact would not in itself guarantee that Ukraine will one day start EU entry talks.

"It would mean that progress [in EU-Ukraine relations] has been achieved but there would be no automatic mechanism concerning [EU] membership," she explained. "This question is not on the agenda."

French diplomats, who first floated the "association" agreement proposal last December, have in the past pointed out that while the EU and Ukraine are coming closer together, the word "association" in itself does not relate to enlargement, as the EU also has "association" deals with states such as Chile and Egypt.

Polish media reports that discussion on the precise wording of the EU-Ukraine treaty preamble is ongoing at the diplomatic level, with the EU negotiating mandate allowing a clause along the lines that the EU "recognises" Ukraine's EU membership aspirations.

Ukrainian diplomats are still struggling to have pro-enlargement wording included in the text before the Evian meeting, Polish daily Rzeczpospolita reports, while Spain leads an EU camp which wants the preamble to explicitly say the new treaty does not relate to accession.