EU to continue scientific co-operation with Ukraine

European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, has announced scientific co-operation between the EU and Ukraine will continue.

The Commissioner made the comments after Brussels and Kiev failed to sign an association agreement for Horizon 2020 at last week’s Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.

In November, during the launch of the EU-Russia Year of Science 2014, she told journalists in Moscow: “It’s not a question of entry or non-entry, but it’s a question of our neighbourhood and our co-operation on our continent. We pay a lot of attention to working and interacting with our neighbours.”

Kiev saw protests this weekend after the government abandoned plans for a trade deal with the EU. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said Russian pressure is the cause of the deal being suspended.