Friday

29th Mar 2024

EU and Ukraine end cold spell in relations

  • Yanukovych: 'EU integration is the most important direction for Ukraine to move toward' (Photo: consilium.europa.eu)

The EU has ended a mini-Cold-War with Ukraine by welcoming back its President in Brussels.

The meeting with Viktor Yanukovych on Monday (25 February) comes after EU leaders last year boycotted a regional summit in Yalta, Ukraine and Euro 2012 football games.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

They also told his Prime Minister to "stay home" instead of going to the EU capital and they did not hold an EU-Ukraine summit for the first time in 15 years.

The cold spell came after Yanukovych jailed political opponents, such as former PM Yulia Tymoshenko, and bullied competing parties in parliamentary elections.

He continues to rule with a heavy hand.

But the EU is keen to sign a political association and free trade agreement with Ukraine in November in order to stop it from drifting into Russia's sphere of influence.

EU Council chief Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso on Monday indicated it will be difficult to sign the text if Tymoshenko remains behind bars.

Van Rompuy said there must be "concrete progress" on the problem of "selective justice" in Ukraine "at the latest by May."

Barroso said there must be "tangible and substantial action."

But on the positive side, the EU agreed to loan Ukraine €610 million to help balance its books.

"You are not walking alone," Barroso said, addressing Ukrainian people in general.

For his part, Yanukovych said there is no question of joining a Russia-led Customs Union instead of the EU.

"Ukrainian law says that EU integration is the most important direction for Ukraine to move toward and this cannot be changed today," he noted.

The summit prompted a small protest in Brussels involving two opposition MPs from Tymoshenko's party.

It prompted a much bigger anti-Yanukovych demonstration in central Kiev involving several thousand people.

Speaking to EUobserver from the Ukrainian capital on Monday, Valeriy Chaly, the deputy head of the Razumkov think tank, said EU officials were right to meet with Yanukovych in order to "directly" tell Ukraine's most powerful man what they want.

He noted that Yanukovych's top priority is to stay in power, not to build better EU-Ukraine relations, however.

"Being realistic, I see just a 20 percent chance of singing the association agreement," he said.

He is not alone in his pessimism.

When asked at an event in the European Parliament last week if the EU should sign the pact if Tymoshenko remains in prison, Poland's foreign minister Radek Sikorski, said: "We want both: Ukraine to sign the agreement and an improvement in its judicial procedures."

But Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt was more gloomy.

"So far, the signs of progress in Ukraine are fairly limited, to put it mildly," he noted.

Media crackdown ahead of EU-Ukraine summit

Alleged sabotage of a news agency, the axing of a top TV show - days ahead of an EU-Ukraine summit, diplomats fear a new media crackdown in Kiev.

EU countries split on Ukraine treaty

A handful of EU countries want to sign a treaty with Ukraine in autumn despite its erosion of democratic standards. But others disagree.

Opinion

Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Rather than assuming a pro-European Labour government in London will automatically open doors in Brussels, the Labour party needs to consider what it may be able to offer to incentivise EU leaders to factor the UK into their defence thinking.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us