EU respected Armenia’s decision to give up signing of the Association Agreement, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in during an event in Kyiv.

“The case of Armenia is instructive. This is a country which also negotiated an Association Agreement with the EU, which initialled it, but at the very last minute, under heavy pressure, decided not to sign. Did we criticise that decision? Did we interrupt our trade? Did we adopt measures against it? Of course not. We respected Armenia’s decision, even if we regretted it,” Barroso said in his speech.

However, what happened to Ukraine was exactly the opposite, he added.

“Ukraine wanted to sign, and eventually signed, the Association Agreement and Russia did not respect that. It did not want Ukraine to choose its path freely or determine its own future. And, this of course could not be accepted”.

He recalled that entire Eastern Partnership policy was public and transparent, as the EU never designed its policies “against” anyone.

“We never sought an exclusive relationship. On the contrary, we always encouraged our Eastern partners to have good relations with their neighbours”.