Over the past week, massive protests unfolded in Ukraine following President Viktor Yanukovych's decision not to sign the EU Ukraine Association Agreement.

The EU Turkey relationship began with an association agreement signed in 1963.

It was there that Ukraine s then president, Viktor Yanukovych, under heavy Russian pressure, refused to sign the EU Ukraine Association Agreement that had been negotiated from 2007 to 2012.

Negotiations for an association agreement between Ukraine and the EU, which includes far reaching provisions for trade and regulatory integration, are well advanced, and could even be concluded this year.

The European Union has a backup plan to supply Ukraine with gas and to reach an agreement with the IMF for an emergency loan if Russia undertakes any measures in response to the possible signing of an association agreement between the EU and Ukraine at the Vilnius summit.

The EU should also be encouraged to be more forthright in agreeing to an Association Agreement and free trade area.

At a recent Eurasian Economic Commission session in Sochi, Belarus and Kazakhstan rejected the Kremlin s proposal to introduce customs duties for goods imported from Ukraine if the country signed the EU association agreement.

That is why Putin put so much pressure on former President Viktor Yanukovych to abandon an association agreement with the EU.

Though prices collapsed during the Great Recession of 2009, they quickly recovered, with the value of Russian output reaching another peak in 2012 2013 precisely when Russia s position on the EU Ukraine association agreement hardened.

The EU Association Agreement has done nothing to assuage Georgia s recent economic woes, and the EU has given no clear signal that Georgia is a candidate for full membership.

Ukraine should be offered a road map for visa free travel. The new EU Ukraine agreement should include a beefed up solidarity clause, building on the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, whereby the EU would consult and assist Ukraine in case of challenges to its territorial integrity and sovereignty.

In the meantime, Ukraine had been negotiating with the European Union for a free trade and association agreement since 2007, and these talks were completed in early 2012.

The prime minister of Ukraine Nikolai Azarov is convinced that prices in the country will significantly decrease after the country signs the association agreement with the European Union.

For the EU, Ukraine continues to be a serious problem.

a greater EU commitment to Ukraine to safeguard its independence

The EU has negotiated and initialed (but not yet signed) a Stabilization and Association Agreement with Serbia, despite its recalcitrance in the Kosovo negotiations and meddling in Bosnia.

Determined to hold him to his promise to sign the EU agreement and not take Ukraine into a customs union with Russia, the protesters mobilized the country.

Though entirely compatible with the existing free trade agreement between Ukraine and Russia, the proposed pact with the EU certainly was not compatible with Putin s Eurasia project.

Equally wrong is the view that Turkey s Association agreement of 1963 holds little relevance for its membership in the EU because at the time the Community s character was purely economic.

Besides, excluding Ukraine from eventual EU membership will encourage Russia's imperial ambitions.

They chose the path towards Europe as they entered the EU Stabilisation and Association Process.

Russia and Ukraine and, to a lesser extent, China blocked efforts to reach an agreement.

If accepted, it promises Ukraine, which aspires to EU membership and is currently negotiating a Free Trade Agreement with the Union, the stable, effective, and democratic government that it needs.

Ukraine has been misgoverned for decades, and it will have to pass through a valley of reform induced tears before it starts to reap the benefits of association and integration with the EU.

With the Association agreement of 1963, a special relationship was established, culminating in the customs union of 1996.

A little more than a year ago, the Kremlin began its offensive to turn Ukraine away from an EU agreement that was supported even by Yanukovych and his Party of Regions.

Of course, Russia won't look on happily if the EU tries to lure Ukraine.

For non EU countries, like Turkey and Ukraine, innovative ideas are also urgently needed.

Building a Ukraine worthy of EU membership will not be easy, cheap, or fast.

For Ukraine, Europe can help by embracing the free trade agreement that we are now negotiating.

Negotiations on the EU association agreement should proceed this is an issue of strategic importance to Europe but subsequent steps will inevitably depend on Ukraine s commitment to the values and principles underpinning European integration.

Millions of Ukraine s citizens favor EU membership, but their enthusiasm is tempered by the absence of a clear EU policy towards Ukraine.

Fortunately, the EU Ukraine summit on September 9 in Evian, France, provides the perfect opportunity.

The EU is preparing measures to support Ukraine in case of economic pressure from Russia

That explains why some EU member states are keen to resume the negotiations on a Stabilization and Association Agreement, which were suspended a year ago due to Serbia s failure to cooperate fully with the ICTY.

Working with the Belarusian association of journalists, this independent media outlet will broadcast from Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and perhaps Ukraine.

And the agreement with the EU must be used to drive the reform process forward.

It was your suggestion to get together, without all the distractions, to discuss and to make a decision, in a direct manner, following the signing of the Association Agreement with the EU, to deal with the situation that was developing at that moment in Ukraine , he said to Petro Poroshenko in front of the cameras.

A comprehensive free trade and association agreement with the Union remains unsigned, owing to the incarceration of Tymoshenko and others.

The delay, intended to show the EU s determination to make the association agreement work, has instead only whetted Putin s appetite.

But two countries essential to this trade Turkey and Ukraine are increasingly estranged from the EU.

In 2013, the European integration of Ukraine and EU membership was supported by 33 of Ukrainians.

New orders dwindled and factories suffered amid rising tensions between the EU and Russia over Ukraine.

The EU oil sanctions, for example, could be suspended almost immediately if an agreement were reached.

File association lines