If successfully concluded, this would be the largest foreign treaty in the history not only of Ukraine, but also of the European Union. Anatoliy Martsinovskiy of the Ukrainian “Eurobulletin,” published by the Kyiv Delegation of the EU, interviewed Dr. Andreas Umland, member of the Valdai Discussion Club (valdaiclub.com), Associate Professor of Political Science at the National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (ukma.kiev.ua), and General Editor of the trilingual book series “Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society” (ibidem-verlag.de/spps.html).
If one looks at the EU-Ukraine relations during the first half of the year, can one say that everything has been proceeding according to plan?
A.U.: There have been positive as well as negative developments. The talks on the Free Trade Agreement and the Association Agreement are proceeding more or less well. At the same time, developments inside Ukraine, in particular concerning violations of such principles as the rule of law, political pluralism and democratic procedure, are unsatisfactory. The situation with these issues is getting worse and worse.
