Ukraine still has reforms to deliver before the European Union can sign a landmark political association and free trade deal with the eastern European country, leaders of the bloc said Friday.
The long-awaited agreement - the first of its kind with an eastern neighbour - is due to dominate an EU-Ukraine summit in Brussels next week. Kiev hopes that the deal can be signed at an Eastern Partnership summit in Lithuania on November 28-29.
"Ukraine needs to implement some key reforms before the agreement can be signed, opening up a new era in our relations," EU President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso wrote in a joint op-ed provided to dpa.
Diplomats in Brussels said Kiev would have to demonstrate "substantial progress" on reforms by May for the EU to be ready to sign in November.
EU foreign ministers outlined areas of concern at a meeting in December. They include establishing a "reliable" electoral system, reforming the country's judiciary, fighting corruption, improving the business climate and addressing the issue of political prisoners.
"We are confident that in the coming summit ... the Ukrainian leaders will show their determination to achieve these goals in time," Van Rompuy and Barroso wrote. "The key is in Ukraine's hand."
But Kiev's ambassador to the EU, Kostiantyn Yelisieiev, had insisted earlier in the week that "the ball is in the camp of the EU," pointing to enduring opposition among some in the bloc and rejecting any "preconditions" for the agreement to be signed.
"What does the status of judges have to do with this seminal agreement?" Yelisieiev had asked, as he complained that the EU would never seek to impose such reforms on trading partners like the United States.
But Van Rompuy and Barroso said that democratic principles such as "the promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms" are key to relations between the EU and its eastern neighbours, saying that they "can not just be established on the basis of interest."
Ukraine has faced international criticism most notably over the jailing of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, which is considered to be politically motivated.
The US-based Freedom House this week also sounded the alarm in its yearly report about the country's "flawed legislative elections and a new law favouring the Russian-speaking portion of the population."
Its president, David Kramer, called for the EU to start thinking about applying sanctions to Kiev, expressing concern about corruption in the government of President Viktor Yanukovych.
"So far, signs of progress in Ukraine are fairly limited, to put it mildly," Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt noted this week during a visit to Brussels. "The jury is still out."
One thing the EU and Ukraine do agree on is that the deal would have a transformation effect on Ukraine and the surrounding region.
"It will give Ukraine greater access to the world's biggest internal market and bring significant benefits in terms of increased trade and investment," the two EU leaders wrote.