UKRAINE:EU FOREIGN ministers signalled yesterday that Ukraine would not be offered the prospect of future membership of the union at a summit meeting next week in France.
They also called for an inquiry to be established to find out who was responsible for the start of the devastating conflict in the Georgian region of South Ossetia last month.
"The question of who participated, and with what motives, in the escalation to armed conflict is important as we consider future ties with the conflict parties - and I mean both Georgia and Russia," German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told journalists yesterday at an EU foreign ministers meeting in Avignon, France, which is discussing the crisis.
He said the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which has monitors on the ground in Georgia, had information about the run-up to the conflict.
Georgia and Russia have blamed each other for starting the conflict in South Ossetia, which erupted unexpectedly on the eve of the Olympic Games on August 7th.
Mr Steinmeier's call for an independent inquiry was backed by Italy. Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini said he had got positive signals on it from Moscow and Tbilisi.
"I spoke about this idea with both the Russian Federation and Georgia. Both told me they are not against. There are good possibilities to launch it," he added.
Austria and Luxembourg also supported an inquiry, while British foreign minister David Miliband said Britain had always called for verification of allegations of human rights abuses. "We have always said we would follow them up without fear or favour," said Mr Miliband, who has argued Russia must face consequences for its actions in the conflict.
EU foreign ministers will return to the Georgian crisis today when they are expected to discuss the launch of a civilian monitoring mission and aid to help rebuild the country's shattered infrastructure following the ceasefire brokered by the EU in mid-August.
They will also discuss how to respond to an increasingly assertive Russia, which has proved in Georgia that it is prepared to use military action to exert influence in its neighbourhood.
They are also expected to focus on Ukraine, which is in the midst of a government crisis and is one of several states in eastern Europe that is in Russia's sphere of influence. But hopes expressed by some EU states, such as Poland and the Czech Republic, that the union may offer Kiev the prospect of future EU membership at an EU-Ukraine summit next week were dashed.
France the current holder of the EU's rotating presidency ruled out using a planned EU-Ukraine summit next week to offer Ukraine official-candidate status.
"If you have no Lisbon you have no enlargement," said French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner when questioned as to whether Ukraine could become an EU candidate state in the near future.
Instead the summit is expected to offer the prospect of closer ties to the EU without declaring that Ukraine is eligible for future membership of the bloc.