Customs Union memorandum allows for EU Association

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine published on its website on June 1 the text of the memorandum signed by Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov and Viktor Khrystenko, a representative of the Eurasian Economic Commission, which is the executive organ of the Customs Union. Ukraine will be allowed to attend only open meetings, exclusively at the Commission’s official invitation. Any Customs Union member can object to Ukraine’s presence.

The memorandum isn’t an international agreement and doesn’t establish rights or requirements regulated by international law, the document states. It also doesn’t preclude Ukraine from signing the Association Agreement with the EU, as planned for the Eastern Partnership in Vilnius in November. The Ukrainian government didn’t inform the EU government of its intention to sign the memorandum and performed damage control afterwards, reported the Kommersant-Ukrayina newspaper. President Viktor Yanukovych spoke with EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in a June 1 telephone call to affirm his commitment to the Association Agreement.

Zenon Zawada: The Customs Union memorandum is a diplomatic success for the Yanukovych administration, which demonstrated that compromises can be reached with a seemingly intractable Putin administration. The Russians were warning that Ukraine would be granted nothing short of Customs Union membership, yet the memorandum essentially creates the observer status that the Ukrainian government was seeking, on a de facto basis (Russia refuses to create the status de jure). The memorandum buys time with the Russian government, gives a bone to the ruling Party of Regions’ pro-Russian electorate and doesn’t upset Ukraine’s pro-European camp, as well as the EU leadership.