Opposition leader claims most Ukrainians want EU-bound course
KYIV. Aug 28 (Interfax) - The European Union is ready to sign an association agreement with Ukraine, and the ball is in Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's court, a statement from the Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) opposition party cited the latter's parliamentary leader, Arseny Yatsenyuk, as saying.
Yatsenyuk made his point in talking to reporters in Brussels after a meeting of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, the statement said.
He said Batkivshchyna had begun a series of roundtables on Ukraine's proposed integration with the EU, but that no one from the government, president's office or ruling Party of Regions had attended any of them.
Yatsenyuk said the opposition had drafted a list of 11 laws that Ukraine is believed to be in need of bringing out to be able to sign an association agreement with the EU. "Now everything depends on the political will of the president and the Party of Regions - whether they are prepared to take practical steps to signing the agreement with the EU in November," he said.
Yatsenyuk said 56% of Ukrainians support their country's proposed integration with the EU. He claimed there is a trend that the more pro-Russian president Ukraine has the more Ukrainians want closer ties with the EU.
As for its Russian policy, Ukraine should "not reset its relations [with Russia] but set up a new type of relations" with it, he said. "We call on the Russian government and president to respect the national sovereignty of Ukraine."