Brussels gave a negative assessment of Ukraine’s actions towards European integration over the past year. This year’s EU report, in the part on the assessment of implementation of jointly formed reforms which are defined in the main bilateral documents EU–Ukraine (Action Plan and Association Agenda) for the period from January 1 through December 31, 2009, states that a curtailing of economic and financial reforms took place.
“The main conclusion is that there were no considerable changes made in comparison with 2008. In 2008 Ukraine joined the WTO, which was a big plus, but it is hard to name a single meaningful reform in 2009,” stressed the head of the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine Jose Manuel Pinto Teixeira. According to the ambassador’s words there were almost no reforms in Ukriane in regards to fighting corruption, improving transparency, and the predictability of rules for business and the regulation basis for entrepreneurs.
The EU report also states that in 2009 the key political and economical reforms were not implemented to the great extend due to the constant constitutional crisis. “The situation in this sphere became considerably complicated because of the presidential elections and that is why a great part of the second half of 2009 was devoted to the presidential campaign but not reforms,” says the document.
Besides, it is stressed in the report that just like it was in 2008 there were no changes implied in the sphere of constitutional reform which remains a priority issue. The report also notes absence of any significant changes in the sphere of reforming judicial system and in corruption fighting issues.
“There is a need for further actions concerning the fulfillment of the commitments before the Council of Europe and further changes in Ukrainian legislation which would reflect the recommendations of the Council of Europe,” is stated in the report. The document also stresses that in the end of the last year the key question in regards to the economy was renewing cooperation with the International Monetary Fund.
“The improvement of economic perspectives is the main problem, particularly in what concerns controlling social and pension payments,” according to the report. However, the report notes the continual worsening of the business climate due to the lack of equal treatment of companies, and bureaucratic obstacles for business and investments, which foster corruption in the country.
The head of the EU Delegation stressed that the materials of the report deal only with the year 2009, under the previous presidency and government. Teixeira expressed his certainty that the present state authorities in Ukraine will pursue the implementation of the strategic course of European integration in accordance with previous commitments. The results of such actions will be assessed by the EU next year in a new document.
In private conversations Ukrainian diplomats acknowledge the fairness of Teixeira’s remarks. One of such diplomats told The Day that the EU ambassador said the least of what he wanted to say.
Commenting on statements of the Ukrainian opposition regarding limited access to mass media, Teixeira said that when they were in power they didn’t fulfill the commitments before the Council of Europe and didn’t create a system of public service broadcasting. “Today we hear that former representatives of state authority do not have access to mass media. It’s a pity. But in the last five years Ukraine’s commitments before the Council of Europe, about creating and developing a system of public service broadcasting in the country, were not fulfilled. There was no improvement in this sphere,” said the head of the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine at the press conference in Kyiv.
We should mention that the report contains a list of reforms for 2010. The key reform is that of the Constitution and the energy sector. The EU expects that the efforts of the new state authorities will focus on macro-economic stability improvement, reforming public administration, fighting corruption, reform in the judicial sphere, and also on improving the climate for business and investments.
It is well known that the EU welcomes the improvement of the relations between Kyiv and Moscow. At the same time, European authorities in Brussels say that the European integration of Ukraine will depend not on its relations with Russia but on the willingness of state authorities to implement European reforms. Stefan Fuele, European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy mentioned this at a press conference on Wednesday while presenting the evaluation of the five year plan of European Neighborhood Policy. “We have always encouraged Ukraine to ensure good relations with all its neighbors,” said Fuele. He also stressed that “the answer is in how devoted the Ukrainian authorities are, and in how willing Ukraine is to implement those reforms.”
It is true that now, as they say, the ball is in Ukraine’s field and everything depends only on how devoted the new state authorities are to the reforms. Recently, Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Kostiantyn Hryshchenko on visit to Brussels said that in the near future the Verkhovna Rada will consider and adopt a few crucially important laws (in particular, the law on counteracting human trafficking). The EU has been insisting on adopting these laws. At the same time, according to Hryshchenko, Kyiv expects the EU to make considerable steps towards a visa-free regime and to stop looking at Ukrainians as a source of problems for the European labor market and social system.
To the point
All the Eastern countries that are neighboring the EU can have a visa-free regime with the EU. UNIAN reported that this statement was made by European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fuele. Commenting on the information that the EU can offer Russia a roadmap for visa-free travel regime by the end of May, he said, “It totally depends on member states.”
“The commission responsible for work with neighbors and cooperation with Eastern Europe countries that take part in Eastern Partnership operates according to the programs that were approved last year,” said Fuele.
He said that according to those documents “we are ready to begin visa related dialogue with all of our partners in the East as soon as they fulfill the list of well-known requirements. Such a dialogue will lead to the liberalization of the visa regime.”
The EU Commissioner stated that the EU will continue supporting this policy because, according to what he said, the liberalization of the visa regime for all Eastern Europe countries is extremely important for strengthening cooperation with the EU.
Answering the question about whether the decision to give Russia a “road map” on visa-free regime would mean that relations with the Russian Federation are more important for the EU than relations with neighbor states Fuele said, “There was no decision yet, however everything is in the hands of member states.”
As it was reported before, in the end of May the Russia-EU summit in Rostov-on-Don the European Union can offer Russia a “road map” for the liberalization of the visa regime. Germany strongly supports this idea.
