EU urged to accept Ukraine as member
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Extending to the East? (Photo: EUobserver)
Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko has urged the EU to accept Ukraine as a member and set out a four-point plan to achieve this goal.
In an interview with the Financial Times over the weekend, Mr Yushchenko said, "Of course, Ukraine is waiting for real concrete steps in response to these democratic and political processes that are occurring in Ukraine. We are awaiting analogous steps from the European Union".
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According to the paper, he lay down a four-point plan to achieve membership of the union.
Kiev should first be acknowledged as a market economy, then join the World Trade Organisation. Following this, Ukraine should be admitted first as an associate member, then a full member of the EU, believes Mr Yushchenko.
The EU has so far not entertained the prospect of Ukrainian membership of the EU, although a spokeswoman said recently that the EU's door "was always open".
Mr Yushchenko will compete in a re-run of Ukraine's flawed election on 26 December and is favourite to win.
Dioxin
And news has also emerged confirming that he was poisoned with dioxin in the run-up to the election. Doctors in Vienna found a level of dioxin 1000 times greater than normal in his body, which disfigured his face.
Ukrainian authorities will conduct an inquiry into the poisoning, which may have occured during a dinner Mr Yushchenko shared with the head of Ukraine's secret service.
But Mr Yushchenko does not want the events to influence the election. "I don’t want this factor to influence the election in some way - either as a plus or a minus", he said.
