EU seeks association pact with Ukraine in 2013, diplomat says

Jan Tombinski, the head of the European Union (EU) Delegation to Ukraine, said on Nov. 21 the EU leadership wants to sign the long-awaited Association Agreement with Ukraine in 2013. “I want to affirm and repeat that our desire is to sign an agreement in a few months, and afterwards work on its implementation,” he said at a gathering of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum. The diplomat’s expectation was buttressed by First Deputy Prime Minister Valeriy Khoroshkovskiy, who said at the meeting, “After meeting with (German Chancellor) Angela Merkel and (Polish Prime Minister) Donald Tusk, we received signals that we have serious chances to sign the Association Agreement in 2013. That will most likely happen in the second half of the year. In any case, the Free Trade Area (FTA) should take effect as soon as possible.”

Zenon Zawada: Tombinski’s statement is best interpreted as the EU leadership’s latest prod to the Ukrainian leadership to conform to European political standards and principles. Significant obstacles remain in the way of signing an Association Agreement, the main one being the imprisonment of two opposition leaders: former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and former Internal Affairs Minister Yuriy Lutsenko. The opposition has made clear it will oppose any Association Agreement until they are released, a position that the EU leadership will consider very seriously. It’s unlikely the Yanukovych administration will advocate for Tymoshenko’s release ahead of the 2015 presidential election, which she would be favored to win given the strong support for the opposition forces in the October parliamentary vote. On the other hand, EU and Ukrainian leaders are also realizing that the longer they wait on the Association Agreement, the harder it will be to secure it. Khoroshkovskiy told the Kommersant-Ukrayina newspaper that “influential” individuals within the Party of Regions are working to undermine EU-integration efforts. That’s likely in favor of Eurasian Union integration.