EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Ukraine president Viktor Yushchenko continued to hammer on enlargement as the EU-Ukraine meeting in Helsinki drew to a close on Friday (27 October) afternoon, but got zero political commitment in return. Ukrainians "need to see the European doors open" the president stated, warning that unless the new EU-Ukraine treaty for post-2007 relations contains explicit recognition of Kiev's accession hopes "the political chapter of the agreement will have no sense." Joint press statement: EU-Ukraine Summit, Helsinki, 27 October 2006
The dioxin-scarred Orange Revolution veteran told press he was "occasionally worried about the intention to determine EU borders" adding "we hope these discussions will not result in the creation of some new Berlin Wall along the EU borders."
Mr Yushchenko assured Brussels there would be no rerun of last year's winter gas crisis and said he would co-sponsor new pipelines to bring Caspian oil and gas to Poland under the "Brody" project and to Austria under the "Nabucco" scheme.
"The integration of the Ukrainian energy system into the European energy network is a part of Ukraine's strategic ambition to join the European Union," he said, having previously suggested membership talks could start in 2008.
But European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso gave a blunt response to the president's call, saying "Ukraine is not ready, and we are not ready [for discussions on enlargement]," AP reports.
"Ukraine still has reforms to do...and today in the European Union, member states are not ready to assume new membership obligations," Mr Barroso stated, adding that his words are not a "negative signal" but a spur to work on the new pact.
Enhancing relations
Official talks on the so-called "Enhanced Agreement" [EA] between the EU and Ukraine are tabled to start in early 2007, with a "deep free trade area" at the heart of the programme dependent on Ukraine's speedy entry into the WTO.
But the draft EA treaty contains nothing on enlargement so far, while Friday's summit conclusions foresee only a "development of stronger economic and trade relations" and "increasingly close co-operation" on foreign policy.
Politically speaking, the draft EA puts Ukraine on a par with other EU "neighbourhood" states such as Morocco or Azerbaijan at a time when Europe is suffering from post-2004 enlargement fatigue but engaging in ever-closer relations with Russia.
Meanwhile, external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told Reuters "it is a particularly difficult time for the process of democratic consolidation and the overall reform process in Ukraine."
EU voices stability worries
"Political stability will be one of the key priorities that president Yushchenko has to find," she added, in reference to the recent comeback of Russia-friendly, anti-NATO politician Viktor Yanukovych as Ukraine's PM.
Brussels is wary that Yushchenko-Yanukovych wrangling could slow down WTO entry and the creation of the EU free trade zone, or even damage sensitive projects such as the EU border monitoring mission for the breakaway Moldovan region of Transdniestria.
"The importance of the continued implementation of the joint declaration by Ukraine and Moldova on customs was highlighted," the summit conclusions said on the Transdniestria customs scheme, which is deeply disliked by Russia.
Friday's summit also saw the EU and Ukraine ink a deal on cheap EU visas from 2007 onward and Ukrainian phone operator, Ukrtelecom, sign a contract to buy 3G mobile phones from Finnish giant Nokia.
October 30, 2006
October 11, 2006
October 10, 2006
Ukraine, Scotland, Europe and the long road from Yalta
On 11 October, Ukraine will become the latest virgin venue for Scottish football's Tartan Army. Travelling to Kiev for the first time (and flushed with recent victories) their presence may well bring stimulate more awareness of the expansive and complex country than 15 years of political turmoil and "revolutions". Ukraine sits uncomfortably in the half-knowledge of most Western Europeans, just as it sits rather uncomfortably itself with its own political and social history - what has been called the country's "unpredictable past".
Three references probably sum up the extent of Ukrainian presence in British popular conscience today. First, and still in the realm of cultural diplomacy, is the recent move of Andrei Shevhenko to Chelsea, unconsciously continuing the centuries of close interaction between Russia and its southern spiritual sister. Staying with popular culture, Ruslana's recent fur-clad success in the Eurovision song contest created a new target for Terry Wogan's emerald wit when Kyiv hosted the contest the following year. Secondly, recent domestic fuel bills in part reflect Europe's dependence on the gas supplies which run out from Russia across Ukraine's eastern border.
However, the third recent domestic echo of Ukraine's place in the world was the Orange Revolution of 2004, which saw the country rise in a student-led revolt against the evident doctoring of Presidential election results, which seemed to favour the anointed succession of Victor Yanukovich to the sombre former President Leonid Kuchma. In what to some is a cruel twist of fate, current President Yushenko - whose dioxin-poisoned face became the defining image of the revolution - has recently had to accept the nomination of his old foe from 2004, Yanukovich, as Prime Minister following his party's majority win in recent Parliamentary elections. Political cohabitation is clearly a concept which many are struggling to come to terms with.
President Yushenko has attempted to veto some of the activities of the government, only to find that he does not have the formal power, or parliamentary support to do so. There is distrust that Yanukovich's apparent proximity to Moscow, drawing from traditional support in the east of Ukraine, is supplanting the still-fledging independence of the former Soviet republic.
The Prime Minister's Party of the Regions, (viewed, a little simplistically, as the pro-Russia party), considers the President to be attempting to exercise powers that are not his to use. Recent moves reinforcing Ukrainian as the national and dominant language in the media and elsewhere make many traditionalists in the country nervous that an element of plurality, as well as national history, is being discarded on behalf of a new nationalism as Russian is diminished.
Central to Ukraine's political struggle for balance and normality are two neighbours whose relationships with the country define the internal difficulties that remain after the Orange Revolution. To the north and east lies Russia, which still maintains a substantial naval presence at Sevastopol, the traditional home of the Russian and Soviet Black Sea fleet. In the historic harbour, the inverted Scottish saltire of the Russian navy remains more prominent and numerous than the blue and gold of Ukraine. Kyiv itself is the spiritual centre of the "Rus", the orthodox community which helped define the culture of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, and which lay at the heart of Tsarist devotion. St Vlodymyr - whose christening on Crimean soil in 989 brought Christianity to the Slavs, is venerated in the caves of Kyiv.
To the West lies the European Union, which crept ever closer last week with the confirmed accession of Romania, which lies over the Carpathian border. Poland and Slovakia also share borders, and Poland and Lithuania use their one time lordship of Ukraine to guarantee the country a sympathetic ear at Europe's top tables. Membership of the EU and NATO are at the core of the current power struggle at the top of Ukrainian politics. Despite the statements of intent to eventually join both blocs contained in the country's “Universal”, a Declaration of National Unity, PM Yanukovich recently presaged a visit to Brussels in September by pouring a large amount of cold water over the idea that NATO membership was appropriate for Ukraine at the moment.
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