Vienna – If the association agreement with Ukraine is not signed this November, the European Union may revisit this issue no earlier than in summer of 2015, EU Ambassador to Ukraine Jan Tombinski has said.
“Our leadership has invested a serious political capital, but the EU won’t risk this political capital twice, if it does not see the specific results,” he said at a conference entitled “Inside Ukraine: Exploring its Future Role in European Energy Security in Vienna, Austria, on March 19. The event was organized by The Economist magazine, with the support of the Foundation for Effective Governance.
According to Tombinski, in 2014 the European Union won’t think of Ukraine as it will have other things on its agenda, including the election to the European Parliament, the economic policy reform, the UK’s requirements of the new treaty on the European Union.
“When the presidential elections will take place in Ukraine in March 2015, the European Union will also undergo major changes, so there is little chance that Ukraine will remain the focus of its attention,” the EU ambassador said.
While commenting on his impressions of the first six months of his work in Ukraine, he said that the Ukrainian politics reminds him of a quilt: they choose certain actions, which have little to do with each other, some of the recommendations of the IMF, the EU, or those of Russia. However, they are not connected to each other.
“There is no general strategy,” Tombinski said.
