European Union has stopped all discussions with the Ukrainian government about the potential signing of a trade and political deal, Stefan Fuele, the EU Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy said in his Twitter feed on Dec. 15.
“(I) told Deputy Prime Minister (Serhiy)
Arbuzov in Brussels and after that further discussion is conditioned
on clear commitment to sign. Work on hold, had no answer,” Fuele
tweeted.
Prime Minister Mykola Azarov didn’t acknowledge the tweet, saying that the Ukrainian government would only take into account official statements.
“The government of Ukraine is set to continue talks on the conditions of implementing the Association Agreement,” said Valeriy Lukyanenko, the prime minister’s spokesperson. He added that Kyiv “will consider only official announcements by the EU regarding negotiations and will react only to them. The EU’s current position is one, and that is the door to the association (agreement) is open.”
Ukraine’s senior government delegation
traveled to Brussels at the end of last week to discuss what they
call a road map to signing the Association Agreement. After taking a
decision to halt preparations for signing the agreement on Nov. 21,
the government continued to insist that Ukraine is moving towards
signing, but would like to see the EU provide a financial cushion for
the nation that has faced harsh trade sanctions from Russia.
“Ukraine had to
make a decision to sign and face… a complete crash of economy, or postpone the signing,” said Prime Minister Mykola Azarov on Dec. 13.
He said that trade turnover with Russia
dropped by 16 percent this year due to Russian sanctions and
Ukraine’s membership in the World Trade Organization.
Earlier, the government had said
that their estimated cost for adapting to the new requirements and
standards after signing the Association Agreement was 160 billion
euro over the next decade. But those types of complaints were only
voiced in the last weeks before the Eastern Partnership Summit in
Vilnius on Nov. 28-29, where Ukraine was planned to sign.
“We talked little about risks
because we concentrated on the strategic perspective,” explained
Azarov. He also said that he hoped to “mitigate risks” with the
help of the European partners.
But it’s clear that Europe is no longer
buying the government’s bluff. “Words and deeds of president and
government regarding the Association Agreement are further and further apart.
Their arguments have no ground for reality,” Fuele tweeted on Dec.
15.
