Lithuania, which takes over the rotating EU presidency on 1 July, has given Ukraine extra time to meet the Union's conditions for signing a long-delayed association agreement.

Ukraine has six months to meet EU terms for signing the association agreement instead of a May deadline the 27-nation bloc has set for improving its judiciary and electoral system, according to the Lithuanian foreign minister Linas Linkevi?ius.

The association agreement, with more than 1,000 pages, was initialled more than a year ago, but its signature is awaiting progress on conditions which include the release from prison of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko (see background).

“We will keep this pressure until the last moment … If they will be ready, we will be ready and we hope, we still believe, that it’s doable to sign the association agreement by the summit in Vilnius,” Linkevi?ius said in a Bloomberg interview published on Monday (13 May).

Lithuania will host a summit of the Eastern Partnership in Vilnius on 28-29 November, the event being seen as major milestone for the future of EU’s relations with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia.

“We have plenty of time,” Linkevi?ius said in the interview. “We will be ready to catch up if they will be ready.”

However, not all EU countries are willing to give Ukraine extra time, EURACTIV was told. The EU is divided over the conditions imposed on Ukraine, with some countries apparently prepared to overlook the imprisonment of Tymoshenko.

But Germany has made it clear that an association agreement hinges on the release of Tymoshenko, who was sentenced in 2011 for abuse of office in connection with a Russian gas supply deal.

Presidential pardon

Meanwhile, Kyiv gave indications that Tymoshenko could be pardoned in time for the Vilnius summit, provided that she cooperates with the court.

Radio Liberty quoted an advisor to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich as saying that Tymoshenko could receive a presidential pardon as soon as the current investigations against her are satisfied.

Hanna Herman, an influential deputy of the ruling Party of Regions, who has long been close to the president, said Tymoshenko should not “hide from trial” and “show the public she has nothing to hide”.

“I believe that when all is over, no doubt everything will be done to ease her fate, despite the fact that the courts' rulings may be different, because there are really serious accusations there,” Herman said.

In another possible snag, Ukrainian prosecutors said Monday that they had reopened an investigation into the killing of MP Yevhen Shcherban in 1996. Tymoshenko has been charged with organising the murder.

Prosecutors earlier said they had suspended the investigation while they sought further evidence in the case.