Russia 1, EU 0
Russia 1, EU 0
29 November 2013
UKRAINE’S HOPES of joining the European Union in the near future were dashed after its parliament failed to pass a crucial bill that would have allowed jailed former premier Yulia Tymoshenko to travel to Germany for medical treatment.
The EU, under German pressure, wants Ukraine to release the former leader and bring an end to ‘selective justice’ in the country as a pre-condition to initiate talks on its joining the union. France and Poland have been pleading for a more restrained approach and not linking Ukraine’s entry into the union to the fate of the former prime minister.
While the opposition led by Tymoshenko’s Fatherland group pushed for the passing of the legislation, President Viktor Yanukovych’s ruling Party of the Regions failed to approve the measure. Expectedly, the government ordered an end to the process of readying the Association Agreement, a trade and partnership pact, between Ukraine and the EU, a preliminary step that would have ensured its joining the exclusive club. The agreement was to have been signed in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, next week.
Snubbing the EU, Ukraine also decided to back the creation of a commission with Russia, a move that the Kremlin has been eagerly pushing for. The 28-member EU, in its eastward expansion, has been seeking out partners in the former Soviet Union, including Georgia, Moldova, Armenia and Ukraine. While the first two are expected to ink the pact in Vilnius next week, Armenia has already backed out of the deal under Russian pressure.
Failure to sign the Association Agreement this week means that Ukraine will have to wait for several more years before such an opportunity arises again. Kremlin is eager that Ukraine and its other former republics join it in a Eurasian customs union that would gradually emerge as a rival to the EU. Russia has been determined not to let Ukraine, an agricultural and industrial powerhouse, to come under EU influence. It has warned that if Kyiv were to get into the EU, it would trigger off economic and political unrest in the nation. Moscow has also imposed tough new tariffs to restrict the import of Ukrainian goods.
Opinion within Ukraine is divided, with the young and those living in the western parts wanting their nation to join the European economic bloc. Older citizens and those living in proximity of their giant eastern neighbour fear the tough new EU standards relating to factories and labour laws. But there’s hardly any support for Ukraine joining the Russia-led Eurasian customs union.