EU countries split on Ukraine treaty

A handful of EU countries are keen to sign an EU pact with Ukraine in autumn despite its erosion of democratic standards.

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.

"We don't see it [the treaty] as a present for the Ukrainian government, but more as a kind of opening up of perspective...