Zero hour is being delayed

These days, when the destiny of EU Association Agreement is being decided, we have found ourselves in a situation when Ukrainian politicians talk more about failure to fulfill EU last demands than whose fault it will be in possible negative result in Vilnius. We wonder whether we will make it to the “last carriage”? By all appearances, a serious game concerning the Vilnius Summit is underway in Ukrainian home policy and in big geopolitics. The stakes are very high. If the agreement is undermined, everyone will be blamed for this: the Ukrainian government, the opposition, and the European side. But, unfortunately, the country will be the one to lose. To prevent this from happening, Ukrainian politicians must think today about undertaking responsibility rather than laying the blame on the opponents. We still have time until November 19.

The Day got in touch with Member of the European Parliament Marek Siwiec and asked him about the prospects of signing the Association Agreement with the EU, with a view of recent events in Ukraine.

Marek SIWIEC: “Everyone will lose if the Agreement is not signed”

“If Yulia Tymoshenko stays in prison, neither Association Agreement, nor Free Trade Area Agreement with the EU will be signed in Vilnius. I think it is clear to everyone.”

Is there any alternative, let’s say, plan B?

“Honestly speaking, if we start speaking about plan B, there will be no plan A. With this in view, in this special case we cannot speak about any alternative decisions.”

If Association Agreement is not signed, it will be a failure of EU East European policy.

“Of course, it will be a crisis of European Neighborhood Policy and of course a big problem for further trust to Ukraine. It has achieved much, only a tiny bit is left – and in this she has not achieved any success whatsoever. I for one am very sad about his.”

If the Association Agreement is not signed in Vilnius, what will further relations between Kyiv and Brussels be?

“Such result is not the end of our cooperation. We need to find new possibilities; however, no one knows when it will be, because European elections and presidential elections in Ukraine are ahead. And there is a number of things which will prevent us from moving ahead in the following several years.”

Could you, please, tell in more concrete terms what do you mean by “new possibilities”?

“At the moment we have no clear answer to this question, because we don’t have a plan B yet. Hopefully, we still have a chance to make a positive decision and not everything is lost yet. But we are running out of time, and there is nothing good about this.”

If the sides fail to sign the Association Agreement in Vilnius, whose fault will it be? Ukrainian government, the opposition, or the EU? Or all of them?

“This question causes concern. All sides will lose, because they all are responsible for this. A year ago Ukraine agreed to certain conditions. They were very friendly, we have waited for a year, giving some recommendations on what should be done and how. Of course, we, on the European side, have done a lot. In the same way, Ukraine has done a lot, but after all, we have no results. Many good things have been done, but we can lose everything because of the last step.”

By Ihor SAMOKYSH, The Day