Ukraine reform progress significant except anti-corruption, EU says

The international community’s patience is getting
exhausted with the lack of practical results of Ukraine’s declared fight against
corruption, said on Nov. 16 Johannes Hahn, the EU enlargement commissioner. In
particular, he pointed to the few reviews performed of electronic assets and
income declarations of government employees. “From what I understand, 1.5
million people declared their property,” he told the First National television
network. “But if I’m not mistaken, only about 100 have been reviewed. One
hundred out of a million and a half is not a result.” He called upon the
Ukrainian government to improve its practical results. “The issue is not only
in creating institutions or the presence of needed legislation, but in how it’s
fulfilled,” he said.

Ukraine is making significant progress with reforms
but needs to accelerate them, the European Commission declared in a recent
report, as mentioned by the EU Representative to Ukraine on Nov. 15. Structural
reforms have led to positive trends in the social and economic spheres, in
spite of domestic and foreign challenges, said the report, as reported by the
eurointegration.com.ua news site. These reforms include the pension, health and
food production systems. Important legislative initiatives were also undertaken
this year in the spheres of electricity, energy efficiency and
decentralization, said the report, which reviewed Ukraine’s progress in
fulfilling the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement since the last Association
Council meeting in December.

Ukraine needs to continue to process of creating an
independent Anti-Corruption Court, as well as fulfill the requirements of the next
IMF tranche, A. Wes Mitchell, the recently appointed U.S. deputy secretary of
state for European and Eurasian Affairs, told the Ukrainian president in a
visit to Kyiv on Nov. 15. “It was nice for us to see several important reform
laws being approved in Ukraine, but a lot more remains to be done,” he said.

Zenon Zawada: These recent statement continue much of the same story that has
characterized the Poroshenko administration, which can be summed up as “too
little, too slow.” The Ukrainian president has made an art form out of
stretching the West’s patience to the extreme by resisting those reforms and
anti-corruption efforts that threaten to restrict his power and authority. The
artistry lies in knowing what he can get away with, and in which areas he has
no choice but to concede to Western demands. The game will continue to succeed
if Poroshenko keeps the Ukrainian public satisfied, enough for re-election in
March 2019. However, the current “Rada Maidan” protest, and his weak
poll standings ahead of elections, both threaten to ruin his political game.