Steven Pifer, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and director of the Brookings Arms Control Initiative, believes Ukraine will grow into “a normal European state” in 17 years.
Pifer, who between 1998 and 2001 served as top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, said
this on June 5, while meeting students and young specialists in Kyiv as he
discussed Ukraine’s chances to sign an Association Agreement with the EU in
November 2013.
But right now, he and other experts worry Ukraine might not address reforms
needed to sign the deal this fall quickly enough. What’s more, there is concern
among some nations over the EU penning the deal with Ukraine.
“The European Union is divided now on the issue of signing the Association
Agreement (with Ukraine). Countries like France, Germany, Netherlands and
Sweden are quite skeptical,” said Pifer. He explained that EU is mostly
concerned with regression on democracy in Ukraine, which he said has become more
evident in the last couple of years.
Specifically, the EU official repeatedly stressed the need to eliminate
selective justice, implement judicial and election reforms, and improve the
business climate. These are the key areas Ukraine must show progress in, if it
hopes to sign Association and Free Trade agreements with the EU during the
summit in Vilnius to take place in November, he said.
Additionally, he said the jailing of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko
must be addressed.
“Ukrainian officials shouldn’t underestimate the value of Yulia
Tymoshenko’s case on a European scale, since Tymoshenko is a contentious issue in
Germany,” he added.
If these issues are not resolved in the near future, hopes for ratifying
the agreement could fail.
As the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine stressed: “There is no plan B, neither
in Brussels, nor in Kyiv.”
If not to be signed in November this
year, it will be postponed until 2015.
Steven Pifer claims the end of this summer is not the end of the road: “There
are two ways: the easy one and the hard one. Ukraine is moving with the hard
one.”
Kyiv Post
intern Yuliya Hudoshnyk can be reached at [email protected]
