Summit Ukraine-EU is deemed positive in Brussels. In particular, EU Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fuele confirmed this at a press conference with Ukrainian journalists. In his words, the leaders of the European Union and Ukraine discussed the future in the tete-a-tete format, unlike the previous summit which took place in December 2011 in Kyiv and focused on the past. It was important as well that both sides confirmed the obligations concerning the signing of Association Agreement which includes the deep and comprehensive zone of free trade area DCFTA. Fuele emphasized that signing of the agreement will help the relations between the EU and Ukraine to evolve, moreover, this will be a concrete step towards realization of Ukraine’s European aspirations.
The EU Commissioner reported that last Friday the agreement consisting of nearly 12,000 pages was translated into 28 languages, except for Croatian. So, Fuele said, the agreement should be sent to EU member countries, so that they gave mandate for its signing. He also mentioned that this unique document envisages application of certain clauses of DCFTA already several weeks or months after signing, of course, with the consent of the European Parliament.
To sign this agreement, Ukraine has to show tangible progress and resolute actions in the three areas that were outlined. This is a clear statement, which has been included in the joint declaration that was signed based on the results of the summit, Fuele emphasized.
As for the way the EU will determine whether Ukraine’s progress is tangible and its actions resolute, a European Commission official said that this would be the mission entrusted to two presidents – Patrick Cox and Aleksander Kwasniewski who are supposed to “give corresponding assessment in 1.5 months, and this will happen exactly after the agreement is submitted to EU Council.” The interlocutor also said that owing to this mission, the EU will have a single, not 28, assessment of the Ukrainian situation. “We believe in this mission and support it.” According to the European official, the EU appreciates that the video cameras were removed from Tymoshenko’s prison cell, and she stopped the disobedience action. “How it was done is not a matter of our concern. We have always paid attention to selective justice, but we don’t prescribe any solutions. The most important thing for us is that it does not repeat, and this has everything to deal with the continuation of judicial reform,” The Day’s interlocutor said. He also thinks that Lutsenko will be released, and the problems concerning Tymoshenko will be resolved. To a direct question whether it means her release from prison, the official said: “Have you seen any European document where we demand that Tymoshenko was released?”
The interlocutor also paid attention to the importance of Cox-Kwasniewski Commission, in particular the importance of conclusions it is going to draw concerning the fulfillment of the recommendation of the Council of Foreign Ministers of December 10, 2012. He denied that Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Pinchuk, who, as is known, funded former Polish president [Aleksander Kwasniewski. – Ed.]. “This is impossible. Both presidents are aware of significance of their mission and have several times proved that they won’t allow being manipulated. One of such examples was the refuting the statement of the penitentiary service which said that the presidents were content with the conditions in which Tymoshenko was kept in prison,” the EU official said.
He admitted, “We understand that it is impossible to solve the entire set of problems before the Vilnius Summit, but if there is no tangible progress and resolute actions or, vice versa, if there is regress, who can guaranty that the two-president mission won’t stop its work?”
The European official also mentioned that in the near future Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych will issue a decree, a kind of a “roadmap” that will envisage the instruments needed for resolution of the problems mentioned in the summary of the Council of Foreign Ministers of December 10, 2012. There is also expected a creation of a coordination authority for implementation of the abovementioned “roadmap.”
