Four EU countries - the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia - have called for the signing of the association agreement with Ukraine at an Eastern Partnership summit to be held in Vilnius in the autumn of 2013, Brussels-based online newspaper EUobserver has reported, referring to its diplomatic sources.

"Sources told EUobserver the Czech republic, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia want to sign the trade and political association treaty at a summit of Eastern Partnership countries to be held in Vilnius in autumn under Lithuania's EU presidency," reads the statement.

A senior diplomat from one of the four countries told EUobserver that it could not be seen as "a present for the Ukrainian government." "[This is] a kind of opening up of perspectives for Ukrainian citizens and imposing a European agenda on the Ukrainian leadership," the diplomat said.

According to the newspaper, a contact in the European External Action Service noted: "One optimistic scenario would be to sign association agreements in Vilnius not just with Ukraine, but also with Moldova, Georgia and Armenia at the same time."

The newspaper presented the position of some Northern European countries, particularly Sweden, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands, which stressed the need to put forward strict criteria for the signing of the agreement with Ukraine, "such as freedom for former PM Yulia Tymoshenko and reform of the judiciary - when EU foreign ministers discuss Ukraine in December."

The article notes that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, at a recent meeting in Berlin, also agreed on the prospect of signing the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement in Vilnius next autumn.

Ukrinform