EU Observer: Fuele calls for Ukraine accession promise

By EU Observer.

Published Feb. 2, 2014 at 12:12 pm

European Union Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele (C) poses with the head of the Ukrainian opposition UDAR (Punch) party Vitalii Klitshko (L) and the head of the opposition Svoboda party Oleh Tyagnybok (R) during his meeting with Ukrainian opposition leaders in Kiev on January 24, 2014. Ukrainian protesters today expanded their protest camp in Kiev closer to the administration of President Viktor Yanukovych, after crisis talks to end Ukraine's worst crisis since its 1991 independence ended in deadlock. After five days of clashes that activists say left five dead, Ukraine's three main opposition leaders held several hours of talks with Yanukovych late on January 23 but the minor concessions they announced were greeted with derision by protesters. AFP PHOTO / GENYA SAVILOV

Photo by AFP

MUNICH - The EU commissioner who, over the past five years, tried and failed to get Ukraine to sign up to pro-EU reforms has said only the promise of accession can change former Soviet states.

“If we are serious about helping this part of Europe to transform, the association agreement is only the first step. The next one should be the light at the end of the tunnel. You can’t transform this part of Europe without using this most powerful instrument [enlargement],” former Czech diplomat Stefan Fuele told a congress of European and US security chiefs in Munich on Saturday (2 February)

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