Less than half a year before the Ukraine-European Union summit, the nation is making much progress towards signing an Association Agreement, but not enough, Jasek Protasiewicz, vice president of the European Parliament said in Kyiv on May 30.
“Sometimes, even when you have 10
out of 11 points (executed), and one is not… it can overshadow the whole
agreement,” Protasiewicz said.
His reference was to the issue of
selective prosecution, and particularly the imprisonment of former Prime
Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Her prosecution has been the main bone of contention
between Ukraine and Europe. Most European nations consider her prosecution to
be politically motivated. The European Court for Human Rights ruled recently
that her detention was for reasons “other” than criminal prosecution, and
called on the Ukrainian authorities to restore her human rights.
Jan Tombinski, EU’s Ambassador in
Ukraine, said that the signing of the Association Agreement, which would seal
Ukraine’s European choice, is not possible until Tymoshenko is out of jail.
“In many countries the issue of
Yulia Tymoshenko is ranking so high that at this point of time the signature
would not be granted to the Association Agreement if the situation remains as
it is,” he told a forum in Kyiv, organized by the Gorshenin Institute, a
political consulting company.
Protasiewicz said there are three
sticking issues out of 11 major points watched by the Europeans, which remain
unsolved. Ukraine is yet to adopt an election code in accordance to the
recommendations by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s
watchdog ODIHR, and move on the judicial reform, especially the reform of
prosecution.
Iryna Berezhna, a parliament deputy
from the Party of Regions, said that Ukraine has “a clear goal” of signing the
agreement, and a consensus in all of the power organs about the need to sign.
She said Ukraine is making steady progress with the laws required to meet the
11 European check points, and hopes that all the legal work for it will be
completed by the end of the current session in July.
However, she said that the issue of
selective prosecution should not stand in the way of signing. “The fate of one
case, one person – which should be solved, and everyone is aware of it – cannot
stand in the way of the signing of an Association Agreement,” she said.
The debate on Ukraine’s readiness to
sign comes in the middle of a very different process, which came about in the past
few days. Ukraine is preparing to sign a memorandum on observer status in the
Customs Union, a super-state organization of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
President Viktor Yanukovych said on
May 29 that the document can be signed as soon as May 31. Although it will give
no immediate benefits to Ukraine apart from presence at meetings of member
states of the union and access to legislation and regulation which is being
prepared within the union, observers are afraid that this may become a
micro-step away from the European integration for the nation.
Tombinski, when commenting on the
Customs Union, said he has not spotted “a word in Ukraine’s strategy about the
Customs Union. It’s up to the president to follow Ukraine’s legal commitment”
to European integration.
He said the choice between
integration with Europe and the Customs Union is basically down to the
opposition of values and prices.
“The value of the EU is long-term
modernization of Ukraine, and full use of economic potential… On the other
hand, (in the Customs Union) it’s mostly questions about prices, tariffs.
Nobody speaks about values,” he said.
“There is no possibility to combine
both,” Tombinski said.
Kyiv Post editor Katya Gorchinskaya can be reached at gorchinskaya@kyivpost.com
