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EU has a duty to support the European integration prospects, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis said on February, 27th, at the conference on EU-Ukraine relations organized by the European Policy Centre in Brussels.

According to the Minister, the best way to do it is to initial the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement as soon as possible.

“Missing out on this opportunity would be detrimental not only to Ukraine, but also to the European Union”, Ažubalis said.

He expressed his firm conviction that European integration prospects  were important factors in promoting democratic reforms.

The conference was also attended by European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Štefan Füle, Sweden’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt and Ukrainian  representatives.

Ažubalis also met with Valeriy Khoroshkovskyi, who was appointed the First vice Prime Minister of Ukraine on February 22 and is in charge of European integration. They discussed important issues of EU-Ukraine relations. Ažubalis stressed that it was important to strictly adhere to democratic principles during   the elections to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine due on October 28th.

Attention was also drawn to the fact that the European society negatively evaluated the selective justice against Ukraine’s former high-ranking officials – Yulia Tymoshenko, Yury Lutsenko and others. Ažubalis also voiced regret over the Ukrainian court’s decision to sentence former Ukrainian Interior Minister Lutsenko on February 27th to four years in prison.