The outcome of this week’s Vilnius Summit became known, unfortunately, a week ahead of schedule. The Ukrainian government decided to suspend the five-year old negotiations to secure an ambitious Ukraine-EU Association Agreement. Along with the Ukrainian parliament, the Kiev government has engaged in a dangerous, uncivilised and dishonest political game.
Ukrainians have clearly stated their support for European integration. That commitment is part of an unprecedented transformation and consolidation that has taken place over the past 22 years of independence. Politicians who do not understand this should have no political future in Ukraine.
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The association agreement should not be regarded in a technical, political, international or legal dimension. It is not just the next step in the integration policy of the EU. Instead, it is the means to secure long-term geopolitical change. It represents an expansion of democracy and stability in Europe and a restoration of historical justice to Ukraine as an independent state within Europe.
With the agreement now postponed, the question is how quickly a change in direction toward new goals in domestic and foreign policy – towards a return to Russia’s orbit – will occur. Moscow is not ready to part with its totalitarian legacy. On the contrary, that legacy is an essential part of its new national identity project, one which made significant progress this week at enrapturing Ukraine.
Russia is, at the moment, looking to restore the Soviet model through innocuous-sounding projects such as the “customs union” and the “common economic space”. But these structures have nothing to do with economic integration and hardly qualify as partnerships. They do not contain accession criteria, requirements or standards, serious norms and regulations nor do they have an institutional base. They have only one aim: pass sovereignty to Russia and destroy competitive industries in the neighbourhood.
Source: The Financial Times
