Yanukovych fails on latest EU pledge, Kommersant reports

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych neglected to fulfill a key promise to the EU leadership last week, the Kommersant-Ukrayina newspaper reported on March 12, citing an anonymous EU source. Yanukovych was supposed to issue a decree requiring all state organs to fulfill 11 requirements to be fulfilled by May, also known as the Fule list. Its absence at the present day “is cause for conern,” the source told Kommersant. Meanwhile, an anonymous source in the Presidential Administration told Kommersant that the decree has been ready since February but got stuck in the approval process in the Administration’s subdivisions, as well as the Cabinet of Ministers. Negative signals about the prospects for its approval have supposedly come from the Cabinet ,the source said.

Zenon Zawada: Kyiv’s EU-oriented community is drawing the conclusion that the Yanukovych administration, in passive fashion, has decided to take a “Euro-pause.” Opposition leaders have called a national public assembly next week to rally those who oppose Yanukovych’s political course. In our view, the chances of signing the Association Agreement are gradually dipping below 50/50 with each passing day and  dramatic pressure on the Yanukovych administration – from various directions – is needed to reverse this trend.