Fule: Brussels monitoring Kyiv’s work on tasks for signing Association Agreement – NRCU
Fule: Brussels monitoring Kyiv’s work on tasks for signing Association Agreement
14-05-2013 17:24
Brussels has a mechanism for monitoring Kyiv’s work on the fulfilment of the conditions necessary for the signing of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement (AA), European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule has said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, “there is an ongoing process in Kyiv and in Brussels.” “During my last visit to Kyiv, I had a meeting with a number of Ukrainian partners, the government and of course, with the prime minister. We agreed how we would put together a list of what needs to be done,” he said. “The list reflected the December 10 foreign ministers’ conclusion, and in the same time it listed those issues that Ukraine committed to itself in the process of its cooperation with EU. We agreed that both the EU ambassadors in Kyiv and the Ukrainian ones in Brussels will monitor this almost on a weekly basis,” Fule said. “We have monitoring process almost on a weekly basis and we compare notes. In addition, we recently received a letter from [Ukrainian] Foreign Minister [Leonid] Kozhara with his assessments. So there is a constant flow of information,” he said. Asked whether recent visits by Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Secretary Andriy Kliuyev and First Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Arbuzov to Brussels were helpful in assessing the fulfillment of Ukraine’s obligations, Fule said that during that period he also met with one of the Ukrainian opposition leaders, Arseniy Yatseniuk. “It was important for me to talk to three of them for the assessment of the progress made, and to see what needs to be done. These meetings are a welcome opportunity to reflect on this monitoring mechanism, make political judgments and steer this process politically,” he said. Fule also noted that during a meeting with Kliuyev they “focused number one on the compatibility of assessment, which needs to be improved and number two what is needed for further work, particularly in three fields.” “The first is the timing for judicial reform, for which, it seems to us, too much time is being taken to prepare a relevant draft. It will not give us the time to make an assessment before the Vilnius summit. Second is election legislation, and third is indeed selective justice, the lack of a strategy, how to address the Yulia Tymoshenko case and [prevent] a recurrence of this issue,” he said. While commenting on his meeting with Arbuzov, Fule said he shared Arbuzov’s opinion that “it was an education visit for him, with a number of the commissioners he met focusing very much on macro-economic issues.” “It gave us a possibility to talk about what needs to be done now and at the Vilnius summit, about the added value of the DCFTA [Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area]. We also took a look at the integration part of the Association Agreement (AA) for Ukraine,” he said. At the same time, Fule said it is a pity that following Kliuyev’s visit to Brussels, some Ukrainian media published untrustworthy reports on the alleged withdrawing of the Tymoshenko issue from the agenda and about a clear signal from Ukraine implying that if AA is not signed, Ukraine will get closer to Russia. “To tell the truth I don’t know what the reason behind of this was, because, as you said, this article and the reference to it has nothing to do with reality, nothing to do with what either of us said. It appears to me that there are people in Ukraine who are interested in a cheap sensation, but not in the truth and reality, and that’s a pity,” Fule said.