EU should sign Ukraine deal even with Tymoshenko in jail - Sun Sentinel

EU should sign Ukraine deal even with Tymoshenko in jail - Sun Sentinel:

"The following editorial appears on Bloomberg View:

Europe's leaders may soon have to choose between a woman and a nation. They should resist the impulse to pick Yulia Tymoshenko over her 46 million fellow Ukrainians.

There is a strong argument for doing just that: Ukraine, which wants to sign a trade deal and wider association agreement with the European Union at a summit Nov. 28-29 in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, has imprisoned Tymoshenko for political reasons. The EU has set Tymoshenko's release as a condition for the deal, whose primary purpose is to instill the bloc's standards and values. Why compromise these very values?

Yet nothing is so simple when it comes to Ukraine, a nation torn by its history, trade and geography, between Russia to the east and the EU to the west. What the EU's leaders need to decide is how their economic and security interests — and those of Ukrainians in developing a more accountable, prosperous and independent country — will be best served. Refusing Ukraine also risks compromising those goals and values."

'via Blog this'