Wrong priorities of Mogherini

The two-day visit of EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini to Ukraine began late on March 11 with a scandal. The high-ranking official of the EU refused to meet with relatives of prisoners of war and political prisoners. “This made them shocked and indignant,” chairperson of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Hanna Hopko, who promised to convey their letter to Mogherini, told The Day.

And the second, and just as important point is that during this visit, the EU’s high representative could not find time to visit eastern Ukraine, just like two and a half years ago. And this happened despite the fact that at a joint press briefing she held with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in November 2015, Mogherini stated that the situation in Ukraine remained one of the highest priorities on the agenda of the EU. The EU Representative Office in Ukraine explained this to The Day by the high representative having a very tight schedule and lacking time to travel to the line of contact and see firsthand what was going on there.

Thirdly, it is strange that, according to reports appearing in Ukrainian media, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy identified reforms and, above all, accelerating the fight against corruption as the main topics of the visit and negotiations with the Ukrainian authorities. “We need a double effort to be made in the most important areas, and fighting corruption is one of them, and here we are waiting for the bill on the establishment of an independent and efficient High Anti-Corruption Court to pass, one which will fully comply with the recommendations of the Venice Commission,” Mogherini said in an interview she gave to the UNIAN.

It is clear that the fight against corruption is important, but the high representative deals primarily with foreign policy and security issues, so we would have liked to hear from her specific proposals on how the EU can contribute to the restoration of peace in eastern Ukraine, in particular, by influencing the Russian Federation so that it fulfills its part of the Minsk Agreements and, in general, encouraging it to fulfill its international obligations and return the illegally annexed region of Crimea.

And here, it seems, Mogherini has nothing to say, besides expressing her wish in an interview with the UNIAN that the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine obtain full access to the entire territory of Ukraine, including along the Ukrainian-Russian border, in accordance with its mandate.

However, why does she not mention at the same time such a powerful tool as sanctions, which, frankly, need to be strengthened in order to encourage Russia to comply with the Minsk Agreements? Instead, Mogherini said: “If a mission agreed to by the UN Security Council could accelerate all this and help promote the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, we would of course be in favor of it.”

The same can be said about energy security, including the Nord Stream 2 project and the latest in the series of gas disputes between Ukraine and Russia, where the EU, which claims to be an influential player in the world, should have taken a principled stand and supported Ukraine.

Instead, “we observe,” said Hopko, “that the European Commission has positioned itself as a mediator between Ukraine and Russia in the gas dispute, although it should have come out on our side, because we are implementing the 3rd Energy Package (while Russia opposes it and appeals against it in the WTO), we have joined the Energy Community (while Russia opposes it), and it is we, not Russia, who have an Association Agreement with the EU, but still, the real priority for the EU is Russia and not us.”

And what did Mogherini bring to Kyiv instead of concrete support for Ukraine, the situation in which she called the highest priority on the bloc’s agenda two and a half years ago? It turns out that this is a communication campaign called Moving Forward Together, which is devoted to the Association Agreement and should demonstrate its benefits to ordinary Ukrainians.

But for Ukraine and Europe in general, the most pressing issue right now is stopping Russian aggression in the Donbas and restoring Ukrainian sovereignty over Crimea in accordance with the norms of international law and international treaties signed by Russia. And this is exactly what Mogherini, in her capacity as the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, should ponder, and consolidate the position of the EU on it. However, it seems that she has not drawn the necessary conclusions during her years in office and still adheres to the position she took in 2014 as Italian foreign minister, when she responded to criticism offered by Toomas Ilves, then president of Estonia, over the weak response of the US and their allies to Russia’s violations of its neighbors’ sovereignty and territorial integrity: “So what, should we bomb Russia? What the solution should be, then?”

There is a solution, but for some reason, Mogherini fails to see or does not want to see it: imposing more stringent sanctions on Russia, freezing the assets of Putin’s inner circle members, abandoning the Nord Stream 2 project, stopping Europe’s purchases of Russian gas and oil, and finally shutting Russia out of the SWIFT payment system. That is, the tools for stopping the brazen actions of the Russian revanchist regime are there, people only need the courage to use them.

During his meeting with the chief of European diplomacy, President Poroshenko called on the EU to recognize Russia as an aggressor. “I firmly believe that, after four years of Russian aggression against Ukraine, it is time for the EU to label the aggressor as such and a party to the conflict,” he said. Meanwhile, Mogherini promised to consider sending another mission made up of the ambassadors sitting on the EU Political and Security Committee to the Donbas. Before that, she met with the Ukrainian prime minister and assured him that the EU would support Ukraine on the path of reforms, and also noted the importance of conducting pension, education, and healthcare reforms, Ukrinform reports. In addition, she stressed the readiness of the bloc to provide Ukraine with one billion euros in loans. However, it should be noted that Ukraine will be able to receive these funds only after meeting four conditions for the next IMF loan tranche: passing a privatization law, the already adopted pension reform, the creation of an anti-corruption court and the settlement of the gas price issue.

The Day asked an expert to comment on the importance of this visit and to explain why the pre-event announcement focused precisely on combating corruption and enacting reforms.

“SHE KNOWS THAT THE CONFLICT EXISTS, BUT HAS COME WITH A DIFFERENT AGENDA”

Kateryna ZAREMBO, a deputy director of the New Europe Center:

“First of all, I do not see anything surprising in the fact that Mogherini does not focus on the conflict, because the EU has an agenda of sorts on Ukraine, and it is primarily about reforms, so it is only logical that she talks precisely about it.

“Secondly, in fact, Mogherini has never paid Ukraine much attention and it would be very strange if she came and started her visit with such a sensitive issue as the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. It may also be a safer choice in terms of what the consensus among the member states is on what to talk about in Ukraine (because she must get a mandate from all EU countries on what she does and talks about).

“If we look at a shared agenda of Ukraine and the EU which is being proposed for the coming summit aimed to shape the assistance provided to Ukraine by the EU, then we see that the conflict appears indirectly in this dialog, only when it touches upon the sanctions. But Mogherini exerts only indirect influence on whether the sanctions will be extended by half a year, as it is decided by the member states themselves. I think this is the natural course given how the EU works. Should a leader of an EU member come here, it would be really desirable to get them to go to the frontline and see everything firsthand. In fact, as far as I know, Mogherini, when communicating with experts, said she was sorry that she did not visit the Donbas on this occasion, that is, she knows that the conflict exists, but has come with a different agenda this time.

“Mogherini has not visited Ukraine for a very long time, so her ongoing visit is definitely a good thing. In general, she is a fairly compromise figure in the EU. It is good to see her coming here and getting acquainted with what is going on, but she is not really charged with the Ukrainian portfolio. Commissioner Johannes Hahn and other officials are more engaged with Ukraine, as is, for example, Chancellor Angela Merkel. That is, it is a welcome addition to the Ukrainian-European agenda.”