Deadline is no tragedy
Valerii CHALY: “The Ukrainian leadership should give a clear answer both at Kyiv meetings with the EU commissioner and at the Brussels summit on February 25”
European politicians are trying almost daily to explain to the Ukrainian leadership what hinders our integration with Europe. Just a few days ago, President Dalia Grybauskaite of Lithuania again reminded Viktor Yanukovych, who was in that country on a visit, that further delays in solving politically-motivated cases against oppositionists might in turn further delay signing the Agreement on Association between the EU and Ukraine. Naturally, European politicians do not always know much about Ukrainian politics. For example, condemning Freedom, they forget, for some reason, the Communists. But this does not justify our authorities which often integrate into Europe in words only. Meanwhile, on February 7, Stefan Fuele, European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy, arrived in Kyiv with the latest EU messages to this country. He had a tight schedule in Ukraine, meeting both the government and the opposition and visiting both the Cabinet and parliament.
“We are saying now that we should work harder on Ukraine’s integration into the European Union,” Fuele said as he met Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and noted that this requires more active measures. He emphasized that Ukraine’s simultaneous economic integration with the European Union and other associations is impossible. “It is also clear that joining any structure which would imply transferring the ability to set tariffs and define its trade policy to a supranational body would mean that Ukraine would no longer be able to implement the tariff dismantling agreed with the European Union in the context of the DCFTA,” Fuele said.
And, what is more, the EU commissioner in fact set a deadline for Ukraine. “We spoke [with Azarov. – Ed.] about a concrete way to achieve results, about the concrete actions that are necessary to create conditions for signing the Agreement on Association between the EU and Ukraine. As for the dates, we have also a clear idea of this – it is November 2013, and I said that such dates as December 2013 or January 2014 do not exist,” Fuele stressed.
To what extent is this realistic? “This rhetoric is being spouted against the backdrop of the European Union’s pressure on the current Kyiv leadership about Ukraine’s observance of democratic standards because this is an obligatory condition for the signing of this agreement,” says Hryhorii Perepelytsia, Doctor of Political Sciences, a professor at the National Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv, commenting on the situation. “The pressure is coupled with certain promises – if Kyiv meets these demands, there will be a prospect of signing the Association Agreement later in the fall, but if Kyiv does not do so, there will no prospect. President Yanukovych is being reminded of this for perhaps the 20th time. The impression is that wherever he goes he receives in fact the same ultimatum: this agreement will not be signed unless the political conditions are met. I do not think that Kyiv will meet these demands, for they affect the very foundations of Yanukovych’s political regime.”
Fuele also emphasized that the signing of the Association Agreement depends on the government of Ukraine.
COMMENTARY
Valerii CHALY, deputy director general, Razumkov Center:
“I do not think Fuele said something new, for these signals had been sent more than once. They are about certain benchmarks, terms, and criteria which the two sides – but, first of all, Ukraine – should achieve. This is required for the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement to be signed at the Eastern Partnership summit in November in Vilnius.
“What you call deadlines will be really deadlines if Ukraine’s leadership fails to understand the importance of the first real stage of integration with the European Union. It is the stage of economic integration and political association that will be introduced after the ratification of the Association Agreement. It will be hardly possible to speak in terms of the preliminary agreements and formats after these dates. There are two reasons why. The first is that further procrastination is absolutely objectionable and inadmissible. The agreement has already been initialed and is going through some additional technical procedures. If these dates are further postponed, this will raise the question of text revision.
“Now about expectations for Ukraine to carry out reforms and meet the so-called indicators or criteria that were informally handed to the Ukrainian side and are part of the decision the EU Council made on December 10, 2012, at the level of foreign ministers. There three main blocks and 19 ‘indicators,’ which is not a piece of news for both sides. Yet, in my view, there should be earlier deadlines for many of them. This especially applies to the political issues because the European Commission is to seek a mandate from the member states for signing this agreement well before the coming summer. So the main decisions should be made before the moment of signing.
“As for the EU commissioner’s calls against the backdrop of a difficult domestic political situation, a political or, to be more exact, parliamentary, crisis in Ukraine, it is not the best moment, but there will hardly be a better one. The top leadership should give a clear answer both at Kyiv meetings with the EU commissioner and at the Brussels summit on February 25 this year.
“As for the often-repeated conditions, I do not think it is about strictly fulfilling all the commitments by November. The overall principle, rules, and steps have shown that Ukraine shares the European Union’s values and approaches which are included in the text of the Association Agreement. So I would not regard these 19 indicators as very severe demands in terms of time. Some of them may be met even after the Association Agreement has been signed. It is, first of all, necessary that Ukraine’s leadership clarify its readiness to draw up a roadmap and meet these criteria. Yet the main demands – on renouncing selective justice, adopting the election code, and carrying out reforms – should be met in the nearest months. Therefore, it is, by all accounts, a question of resolute steps and serious motivation for the Ukrainian leadership which is to show its support of Ukrainian society’s aspirations for European integration.”
