EU-Ukraine Association Agreement to be signed, Ukraine to go to Europe - speaker
UZGOROD. Sept 25 (Interfax) - Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Rybak said that he was certain that the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement would be signed and that no one should tell Ukraine which choice to make.
"I believe that the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement will be signed," Rybak said at a meeting with heads of local executives and self-governing authorities in Uzhgorod on Wednesday.
"These are historical days for Ukraine - for how we will go further and how we will develop," Rybak said.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has given the government a task - to establish the European standards in Ukraine, the speaker said. "We are going to Europe," he said.
Ukraine can not live with such pensions and such salaries anymore and other education standards should be introduced in the country, Rybak said. "We are fulfilling our obligations to Europe," he said.
Ukraine still has several laws to pass, Rybak said. "I see that we will pass them. The Verkhovna Rada has united around these bills," he said. Communists alone, who support Ukraine's joining the Customs Union, are opposed to passing the European integration laws, he said.
Ukraine should refrain "from sharp assessments towards Russia," Rybak said.