Marek Siwiec: 2012 has to be a year of making <i>The Day</i> known in Europe
Marek Siwiec, member of European Parliament and regular contributor to The Day is an old friend of Ukraine and is anxious for our country to draw closer to the European Union. The Day has asked him to make a review of the Ukraine-EU relations in the past year.
“We had a pretty good start of the year, in particular for the President Yanukovych. There was a lot of optimism and many good approaches. But at the same time, I should say that neither European Union, nor Ukraine got lucky because we don’t have an agreement on association and do not know when it will be possibly signed. From this perspective I consider the end of the past year to be bad.”
Do you see a way out of a deadlock, to which the Ukrainian authorities have come with the case of Yulia Tymoshenko?
“The thing is that the decisions related to the problem of Yulia Tymoshenko (earlier it was said that there would be an appeal to the court and the changes to the law would be passed) were not implemented. The charges against Tymoshenko haven’t been dismissed. I don’t see any simple way for her to come out of prison. Another negative fact is that all of these allegations towards Ukraine were expressed in public during the summit in Kyiv by EU leaders. Now, there is a situation, when criticism is heard not only from the European Parliament regarding individual MPs or the parliament as a whole, but also from the official Brussels.”
Don’t you see any way out of this situation?
“In my opinion, there is one thing that can break the ice between the two parties — parliamentary elections in the fall this year. The new law on elections is important and positive, even though I personally don’t like it, because it was approved by all parties in the Verkhovna Rada. If these elections will be well-organized, free, and fair then we will have a chance to go back to the agreements signing. However, if there will be falsification and complaints about the process of conducting the elections, we will be in a much worse situation.”
Since you are one of the columnists of our newspaper, we would like to know for what materials published in The Day will this year be remembered for you?
“It’s true, I have carefully read your newspaper, especially the English version. I saw many interesting materials in every issue. I liked some articles on the modern history of Ukraine and the fact that you try to make new names known to the public. I must tell you that I would like to see The Day more in Brussels because it provides a real overview of the situation in Ukraine. I am thinking about how to do it, how to promote The Day on my website. The year 2012 has to be a year of making The Day known in Europe.”
Finally, your toast or wishes for the New Year.
“I would like to wish all Ukrainians to have a lot of courage and strength in the new year. This will be a difficult year for us. The word ‘crisis’ is extremely popular now. I wish you a shorter distance between Ukraine and the EU in the end of the year 2012 than it was in the end of 2011.”
