The European and Ukrainian sides have said that the regular 13th Ukraine—European Union summit, which was held on December 4 in the capital of Ukraine and presided over by President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine and Fredrik Reinfeldt, President of the European Council and Prime Minister of Sweden, was important. Addressing a press conference, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso spoke about the summit’s importance and progress in the relations between Kyiv and Brussels after the Paris summit last September. But the impression is that this summit had a distinct political coloring caused by the upcoming presidential elections in Ukraine. This was especially clear during the final press conference.
Indeed, no concrete decisions were made and there was no breakthrough in comparison to 2005, when the summit resolved to grant Ukraine the long-awaited status of a market economy country. To tell the truth, one cannot always expect a breakthrough from a summit if no preparatory work has been done. In this case, the Ukrainian side was not prepared to sign an ambitious agreement on associative status, which both sides have admitted.
In his introductory speech to the summit, the Ukrainian head of state named the causes: “ineffective work of the Ukrainian parliament, which has fallen hostage to domestic political struggle on the eve of the upcoming presidential elections, has largely slowed down the process of bringing Ukrainian legislation into line with the norms and requirements of the European Union. We admit that the parliamentary majority has failed so far to pass a number of very essential laws. But we hope that Ukraine will pay off its debts in the nearest future.”
On his part, Barroso believes that the two sides may finish drawing up the ambitious association agreement between Ukraine and the EU in 2010. In the opinion of many experts, it is a realistic period of time to prepare the second part of the association agreement, which calls for establishing an extensive free trade zone, so that Ukraine does not lose out by opening its market to European goods.
It should be noted that both the European Council president and the European Commission president expressed concern at the press-conference about the coming presidential elections. They said in their comments that it is necessary to ensure political stability after the elections, which should be honest and fair. “Political stability is important for carrying out reforms. The International Monetary Fund should re-launch its funding program because the EU is the largest donor,” Reinfeldt emphasized. In his words, no matter who is elected president, the two sides must work together to carry out reforms and modernize the gas transit system.
Barroso noted the same. “It is important that Ukraine should be politically stable and the Ukrainian government should be able to show people the results. Our relations will be developing in order to bring Ukraine closer to the EU. But we hope that Ukraine will carry out reforms so that our assistance is even more effective,” he stressed.
The Ukrainian president emphasized that Ukraine had been holding elections in the past four years and so would be able to ensure the right type of voting. At the same time, Yushchenko assured his counterparts that integration into the EU would remain Ukraine’s top-priority national strategy after the 2010 elections.
