Since Ukraine started presiding over the OSCE, the Foreign Minister of Ukraine Leonid Kozhara has been either busy with trips to European capitals, or hosting foreign delegations in Kyiv. However, he found time to give an exclusive interview to The Day. By the way, this happened right after Kozhara’s negotiations with Wolfgang Grossruck, acting president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly at the foreign ministry office. During the interview, the minister was confident and convincing while explaining the ministry’s position on urgent foreign policy matters, including such delicate topic as Yulia Tymoshenko’s case. He admitted that being in the Party of Regions even helped him during negotiations with foreign colleagues and let him talk to leaders of European political parties. Obviously, the fact that Kozhara has been an MP and spokesman for the Party of Regions helps him a lot too.
Ukrainian and Western experts state that this year might determine the relations between the EU and Ukraine. They urge Ukrainian leadership to do its best to sign the Association Agreement. Perhaps, you have read interviews of the German and French ambassadors in The Day, who wished Ukraine to use this opportunity.
“I do read your newspaper. As you can remember, we used to cooperate before.”
In one of the interviews you said that you were an optimist and believed that the Association Agreement would be signed at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius. What is your optimism based on? Europe has indeed imposed really harsh conditions that relate to achieving “tangible progress” in three areas and are to be met by May: settling the selective justice problem and preventing the whole situation from repeating itself, the revision of election legislation, and the implementation of reforms provided by the EU Association Agreement agenda.
“Firstly, I think that both the EU and Ukraine will equally benefit from the Association Agreement. And this is the first prerequisite for both sides to treat the idea of the Association Agreement signing in Vilnius in November 2013 positively. This is the basic prerequisite. Secondly, the EU is a rather complicated organization. It is not just one country, and the mechanism of decision-making is rather complicated. In order to understand what the final decision will be, we must know the standing of the EU’s main bodies: the European Council, the European Commission, and the European Parliament. The attitude of all 27 member states has to be understood, and I hope that only 27 will be making the decision so far, because since July 1 there are going to be 28 EU member states. Then this position will become even more complicated. Besides, it is very important to know the opinion of individual large European political parties. So, it is incredibly hard to see clearly what the final decision might be in such a system.
“But we understand the tendency and can see its direction. At the moment, everyone is stating that Ukraine has initiated a reform program, the program of fulfillment of its obligations before the European Council, before the OSCE institutions (by the way, the main conclusions on Ukrainian elections are drawn by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights), the program of internal transformation. And the positive feedback that we hear from the EU means that we have ensured a positive tendency, which might lead us to a successful summit.”
What has to be done before Vilnius to consolidate this tendency?
“First of all, as of today, we can already say that Ukraine completes its commitments rather effectively. In February the government adopted a resolution based on the corresponding conclusions of the Foreign Affairs Council made on December 10. It is important that this is a reform program provided by the governmental Action Plan (by the way, there was also the president’s resolution on these matters), these are reforms that we carry out not for the EU, or the European Council, or OSCE. This completely corresponds to the program of internal reforming of Ukraine. Today, the Verkhovna Rada has also become an active participant of this process, and we hope that the package of relevant legislation will be passed in May. The matters that we, jointly with the European Union, have chosen as the priority ones include the matter of judicial and election systems reforming, and a campaign against corruption. All necessary draft laws are being intensively discussed in the parliament now, and we hope that these laws will be passed.
“Besides, Ukraine is actively implementing the action plan on the liberalization of the visa regime. Another set of laws that consists of three chapters was submitted by the Cabinet of Ministers to the parliament. It includes fight on corruption, protection of personal data, and a broader plan of fulfilling the EU schedule.”
What are the risks or dangers on this way to signing the agreement, which will mark the beginning of Ukraine’s coming back to Europe, a constituent part of which it used to be? As you once said, Ukraine made its contribution in the development of the European civilization.
“I consider the financial and economic crisis in the EU to be the main threat. All matters of the EU expansion in any sense, even in sense of association, tend to be opposed by the member states. Meanwhile, there is an absolutely positive attitude in the majority of member states. However, some countries are very sensitive when it comes to matters of market expansion and expanding the political association. That is why the MFA’s main task today is to inform our EU partners about the opportunities that Ukraine presents to the European Union. I think that the process is successful. It is not a secret that there is a political issue in the relations with the EU, the issue that relates to the former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is now in jail. We think that this issue is too politicized today. Moreover, the EU views this issue as ‘selective’ justice. But I would like to emphasize that ‘selective’ justice as a system of repressions of Ukrainian opposition through the judicial system is absolutely nonexistent in Ukraine. There is no such system. There is one specific criminal case and it has to be settled purely in the judicial sphere. Recently the president pardoned another minister of the former government, Yurii Lutsenko, and this was done within the judicial framework. Moreover, all legal procedures related to Lutsenko’s case are completed. And this cannot be said about Tymoshenko’s case today. But we are deeply convinced that a single criminal case that relates to a former prime minister cannot be an obstacle in relations between such a great country as Ukraine and the European Union.”
Ukrainehas been importing gas at the 2009 price for 3 years. It is clear that this contract is a heavy burden on the national budget. And according to this contract’s provisions, annually we lose at least six billion dollars, which otherwise could have been spent on the social sphere and modernization of Ukraine’s economy. That is why one of the government’s tasks for today is carrying out the negotiations on reviewing the 2009 agreement with Russia.
Merkel recently said that “freeing Tymoshenko is not enough for signing the Association Agreement.” Is this a display of sensitivity to association expansion or something else?
“Recently I had an official visit to Germany. I met with numerous institutions, including my colleague Guido Westerwelle. He publicly stated during the press conference that Germany supported Ukraine’s European ambitions. I understand that Germany still has questions today, but we will settle them while remembering that a single criminal case cannot be an obstacle. We need to better demonstrate this position to the German side.”
What do you report to the president in relation to this topic, especially in relation to signing the Association Agreement? What is his reaction?
“Today the president has earmarked the matters of European integration and signing the Association Agreement as top priority. This is also proved by Ukrainian legislation. That is why the present activity of the MFA is directed at achieving this result. I have an extremely busy schedule, and by summer I will have visited the majority of the European Union member states. During these visits, we are going to prove our priorities. The president of Ukraine is informed about the MFA’s activity. We constantly report to him about what is done by the ministry and ministers.”
It is known that in general society, especially the young, supports the integration to Europe. Why don’t you meet with representatives of NGOs to consolidate this social volunteer movement of clarification the advantages of the Association Agreement signing and becoming the EU member?
“I am trying to make the foreign minister’s work as open as possible. I hold a lot of meetings, including those with representatives of non-governmental organizations. I had a scheduled meeting with youth organizations. Moreover, I demand that the ministry must have partnership with NGOs. By the way, there is an expert at the ministry now who is responsible for this kind of partnership.”
What did the scandal around the Polish company EuRoPol Gaz signing a memorandum with Gazprom on the construction of a pipeline bypassing Ukraine reveal? What lessons should be learned from this? Can Ukraine count on Poland’s full support in the matters of European integration, as it has done before?
“It is not a secret that Poland is Ukraine’s the largest and the most powerful lobbyist in the EU. And Poland demonstrates this every day. Poland supports signing the Association Agreement with Ukraine. The matters that relate to your question are Poland’s sovereign issues. This country settles them based on its personal economic interest, but in general, it coincides with Ukrainian interest. We think that the cheapest, the shortest, and the most established route for Russian gas transportation is via the territory of Ukraine. And we are negotiating with the Russian Federation on Ukrainian gas transportation system, we are constantly telling our Russian partners that cooperation involving the use of our gas transportation system is the most beneficial for Ukraine and Russia as sovereign states and from the point of view of Ukraine’s relations with the European consumers. And also, from the point of view of Russia’s relation with the European consumers as well.”
Cooperation with Russia is important for Ukraine, because the general trade turnover with this country exceeded 60 billion dollars. And that is why the Ukrainian government’s attempts to intensify the cooperation with our northern neighbor should be only supported. But how do you perceive the recent news that Moscow has refused to continue working on developing An-70 and repairing navy ships at Ukrainian shipyards, where they were made? What can you say about the outrageous statement by Putin’s advisor Glaziev, who explained the reasons of this project’s slowing down in the following way: “God got very mad at Ukraine for some reason and deprived its government of brains, and this is very alarming”?
“I would like to say that many branches of Ukrainian economy do not have to be integrated into the economy of the Customs Union, because they are already integrated. And the task of our relations with the Customs Union is not to lose what has been gained before. Today the Ukrainian government is analyzing all of the CU’s statute agreements. At the moment, their number exceeds 200, and we are looking into which agreements Ukraine could join in order to have an extensive cooperation with the Customs Union without violating our obligations regarding the cooperation with other organizations, including the EU.”
Many experts say that the Kharkiv agreements did not bring the expected improvement of relations with Moscow. Russia continues pressurizing us and will not establish a normal price for its gas, thus continuing to ruin our country, and in the meanwhile it buys whatever it can. Do we have enough strength to withstand this pressure?
“Thank you for this question. Firstly, the Kharkiv agreements of 2010 played a crucial role in stabilizing political relations with the Russian Federation. As of today, the matter of basing of the Black Sea Fleet is one of the main ones and it is not politicized. And secondly, there is a 100-dollar discount for imported Russian gas. The Kharkiv agreements are not the problem.”
What is then?
“The basic agreements signed by the government in 2009. The basic price for gas remains one of the highest in Europe. This is the reason of our present-day troubles.”
So, do we have enough strength to withstand such a price?
“You see, Ukraine has been importing gas at the 2009 price for 3 years. It is clear that this contract is a heavy burden on the national budget. And according to this contract’s provisions, annually we lose at least six billion dollars, which otherwise could have been spent on the social sphere and modernization of Ukraine’s economy. That is why one of the government’s tasks for today is carrying out the negotiations on reviewing the 2009 agreement with Russia. By the way, a third of the term has already passed. But on the other hand, Ukraine took a huge step in the diversification of the domestic market. The consumption of Russian gas decreases. That is why despite the hardships and the negative effect on the budget, social sphere, production, and modernization, these agreements are an extremely powerful stimulus to diversify the sources of energy and modernize Ukraine’s gas market in order to find new ways of economy development in such hard economic conditions.”
Could you tell us about the prospects of border delimitation in the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait?
“I think that negotiations on delimitation in the Azov and Black Seas and the Kerch Strait are very successful. Last year, there was a statement by Ukrainian and Russian presidents that said that both parties were intensively moving towards the consolidation of principles for such delimitation. We welcome the Russian Federation’s standpoint in this context, because it approaches these matters from a practical point. We think that there definitely has been some progress in these matters.”
Can you be more specific on when the negotiations will be over?
“This is a process that lasts for decades. But if this process is still going on, and we have already reached the stage of principle definition, and the Russian Federation agrees that such delimitation should take place, it means that there is some progress.”
Do you interact with your predecessor Kostiantyn Hryshchenko?
“Almost every day. Today, we attended the Cabinet of Ministers meeting together. Now Hryshchenko is a vice prime minister who is responsible for humanitarian issues. But there are a lot of important areas where we cooperate. For example, according to the Cabinet’s order, Hryshchenko is responsible for the celebration of the 1,025th anniversary of Christianity in Kyivan Rus’.”
By the way, another important event, the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Holodomor in Ukraine, will take place this year. Have the government found 20 million dollars for the construction of the Holodomor Memorial in Washington DC?
“The MFA is actively working to build the Holodomor Memorial in Washington DC. The Ukrainian Embassy has already contacted the city’s authorities about this matter. We have to finance at least the initial stage of the construction. If we do not do this, the construction site can be lost. According to their local legislation, land cannot remain unused for long. That is why we support the beginning of the construction. As a minister, I addressed the president of Ukraine and the government. I hope that the money will be found during the review of this year’s budget. I think that it is important for the capital of the United States to have a memorial that perpetuates the memory of such a tragic part of Ukrainian history. By the way, a lot of names of streets, squares, memorials, and monuments in Washington DC are associated with various historical events. Therefore, I think that a memorial dedicated to the Holodomor will be another historical site visited by local residents, Americans in general, and citizens of Ukraine.”
