The Eastern Partnership Program which embraces six states of the post-Soviet space, including Ukraine, is “a very important initiative, but the way it is being realized is unsatisfactory.” That was the tone given last Monday morning before the informal meeting of foreign ministers of the Eastern Partnership member countries in Sopot by Poland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Radoslaw Sikorski. However, later that day at the closing press conference he said that the discussion had proven that there is a need for such partnership, as it is an important initiative. In his words, the meeting has helped to estimate what has been done within the framework of this program and what else can be done.
Meanwhile, Spain’s Foreign Minister (the country’s EU presidency ends on June 30) Miguel Angel Moratinos expressed the opinion that the meeting was an absolute success and was marked with numerous symbols. “We are closing our EU presidency by holding an informal summit of foreign ministers of the Eastern Partnership member states and heads of diplomatic bodies, high-ranking officials from the EU countries,” he said. According to him, holding this press conference indicates that the eastern dimension does not compete with the southern one, and “there are all grounds to say that the Eastern Parnership is EU’s top priority.”
Sikorski explained that the foreign ministers from the key European countries, Germany, France and Great Britain, did not attend the meeting, as it was hard to secure the presence of all the ministers from 27 countries so that it would fit into their schedule. At the same time he said that those countries were represented by those countries’ European affairs ministers or state secretaries.
It should be admitted that the European ministers and other statesmen marked that Ukraine is the leading country among these partners, as it is running negotiations concerning a total of three issues simultaneously: the association agreement, enhanced free trade area, and visa regime liberalization.
“We welcome the fact of signing the border demarcation agreement between Ukraine and Russia, because this allows Ukrainians to meet the conditions on visa regime liberalization. And we will take the new democratic government at its word. They promise to speak less, yet do more. Therefore, whether Ukraine meets the conditions of different parts of the Eastern Partnership depends only on Ukrainians themselves. Then we will judge,” Sikorski said at a briefing for a group of journalists from the Eastern Partnership member countries.
EU Commissioner on Enlargement and European Neihgborhood Policy Stefan Fuele, in his conversation with the journalists, marked that Kyiv’s attitude to the reforms will depend on the quality of relations between Ukraine and the EU, not the cooperation between Kyiv and Moscow. At the same time he underlined that the EU had always urged Ukraine to maintain good relations with Russia.
“The better the partnership, the more the EU can propose for its partner country. Most importantly, the Eastern Partnership member countries should be eager to carry out deep reforms and get closer to the EU. We can criticize and block aid, when needed,” the EU commissioner emphasized, when answering the question whether the EU may exert pressure on the countries that do not meet the EU democratic standards, particularly in upholding human rights and holding honest and transparent elections.
Speaking about the prospect of visa regime cancellation with Ukraine, Fuele said that a corresponding action plan might be agreed upon this year. In his words, since this kind of plan is being drafted at the European Commission, the resolution should be passed by the European Council.
Fuele reported that the Action Plan on the visa waiver regime with Ukraine will be considered at a session of the EU Cooperation Council on June 15 in Luxemburg. “At the session we will ask Kyiv the questions in order to specify what we know and also the questions to find out some others things. Hopefully, a concrete plan leading us to a visa-free regime will be approved by the Ukraine-EU summit that will be held later, this autumn.”
The Eurocommissioner considers that the realization of the plan will “first of all depend on Ukrainians and how fast they will do their homework.” The press service of Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry reported that Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Kostiantyn Hryshchenko stated that the EU’s decision on visa cancellation could become a much stronger impetus for Ukraine’s development than any political declarations. Now one can only expect from the Ukrainian government that concrete actions will be undertaken in order to “do their homework,” then it will be possible to say who is doing more than just speaking.
One should pay tribute to the EU, whose actions prove the transparency of the realization of the Eastern Partnership program. It will be reminded that Russia did not like this initiative. Therefore Brussels resolved to involve the group of friends of the Eastern Partnership in the realization of this program within an informal framework. Fuele explained that this is done in hopes of better coordination of the donors’ activity, as well as to provide third countries with more information on what is going on and what is going to happen in the Eastern Partnership. Sikorski considers that Norway, Japan, the US and China may become donors for the Eastern Partnership.
Fuele’s words showed that Brussels has people who do not pay attention to the dissatisfaction of certain circles in Old Europe about the EU’s enlargement, as well as attempts to start the discussion on EU borders —at a time when the challenges are changing more rapidly than the reaction to them and when the population is growing old very quickly and new centers of power are emerging, like China, Brazil, and India.
“The EU has shown that it can not only enlarge, but also implement an internal modernization. We should go on with this enlargement project as it reflects the EU’s most successful policy. Foreign policy is one of the paths to prevent EU’s stagnation and lose of significance. The EU is a living organism. One cannot limit its activity to political actions only,” Fuele emphasized.
Apparently, Ukraine should be more active in its implementation of economic reforms, European standards, and approximation of its legislation with the European one, in order to be ready when the new window of EU enlargement opens.
