Ukrainian Pres to discuss European integration drng visit to Poland

KIEV, August 30 (Itar-Tass) - President Viktor Yanukovich of Ukraine
is expected to make a working visit to Poland Tuesday, the presidential
press service said.
He said in a conversation with reporters Monday the itinerary of his
trip includes a meeting with President Bronislaw Komarowski in the latter
man's summer residence in the town of Jurata on the Baltic Sea.
According to Yanukovich, he is going to discuss the Ukrainian-Polish
relations in the light of Poland's term of rotating presidency of the
European Union.
"There's really something for us to discuss," he said. "The issues are
the signing of an agreement free trade, an agreement on Ukraine's
association with the EU, the liberalization of travel visa issuance rules,
and preparations for a conference of the countries taking part in the
Eastern Partnership project.
In the meantime, diplomatic sources here indicate that the court trial
of former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko, who has turned into an icon in
the West for her role in the 2004 'orange revolution', may also spring up
in the course of the talks between Yanukovich and Komarowski.
Timoshenko's arrest in Kiev has caused alarm among the European
officials and may block the signing of the agreement on association.
Yanukovich believes however that a discussion of the Timoshenko
problem at the level of the heads of state will not exert any influence on
a verdict to be taken by the court in Kiev.
"Our discussion won't affect the court's ruling since the government's
non-intervention is a European norm, a norm for democratic countries where
the executive branch of power shouldn't meddle with the affairs of the
judiciary.
On this background, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry claims there are no
problems at the Ukrainian-EU talks on the free trade zone or on the
association agreement.
"The results of the recent rounds of talks testify to their fair
progress but along with this certain quarters are apparently making
attempts to create problems, to exert external pressure for the purpose of
resolving the problems of their own domestic policies," said Vassily
Filupchuk, the director of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's department for
the EU.
"Throughout this year, we reached a level of fruitful and encouraging
cooperation with the EU," he said. "On the face of it, appeals to external
forces and the efforts to entangle them in internal political problems can
only play into the hands of those who are not interested in Ukraine's
integration in Europe."