Regions Party MP Volodymyr Oliynyk has said he believes that Ukraine will lose much of its sovereignty if it joins the Customs Union rather than gaining EU membership.
“On the one hand, while joining a particular union, we lose some part of our sovereignty, but in the EU we are equal and there is a consensus in decision-making, while in the Customs Union there are older, younger and smaller. We don’t accept this principle, because there there’s already a loss of real sovereignty,” he said at a roundtable in Kyiv on Thursday, Feb.27.
He also said that there was a queue of countries that want to join the EU, even despite the presence of certain problems there.
“But I don’t see a queue for the Customs Union,” he said.
Oliynyk said that Ukraine has its national interests both in the EU and the Customs Union.
“Everyone currently needs Ukraine, both Russia and the EU. All are fighting for it, and Ukraine should fight for its national interests that were formed in both the EU and the Customs Union. So we say: ‘Don’t break Ukraine. Europe is our home, and Russia is our neighbor,” he said.
Oliynyk noted that Ukraine could fulfill all of the requirements set by the EU, but noted that, in particular, trials of former politicians and public figures need to be addressed at the legal, rather than political level.
“We are looking for a formula to resolve this problem, but if we make decisions on the instructions of Brussels, then they should give us a list of politicians who are untouchable, because they are already politicians of a certain level,” he said.
