One view in the Kyiv Post is that the signing should take place, no matter what, as a major impetus for Ukraine’s leaders to change their undemocratic ways and a major tool for Europe to prod them to it. Without the incentive of an association agreement, according to this argument, Ukrainians may be locked out of institutional development, free trade and free travel for years to come.
The opposite view is that no signing should take place at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Lithuania on Nov. 28-29 unless Ukraine’s leaders are forthcoming on basic EU requirements. Going easy on Ukraine would send the wrong signal to Ukraine’s unworthy leaders, according to this line of thinking.
President Viktor Yanukovych can certainly increase the chances of such a signature taking place by dropping the fiction that he has nothing to do with ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s imprisonment since 2011. Then he should pardon her and let her go free. But freeing Tymoshenko is not enough.
Ukraine needs to follow through on laws passed that would improve election laws, curb prosecutorial powers, establish an independent judiciary and make government more accountable to the people. As we are reminded by the new book written by former Kyiv Post editor Jaroslaw Koshiw, excerpts of which are contained in today’s front-page story, Ukraine’s presidents have run the nation with near-authoritarian powers. Impunity reigns among the elite. The president serves as referee in an oligarchy, and the kind who increasingly favors one of the players.
We are in agreement on these issues at the Kyiv Post. What we disagree about is whether a signed political association and free trade agreement with the EU will speed Ukraine’s democratic transition or merely embolden its leadership to act with more impunity and do nothing to check extraordinary powers of a president who acts today as a referee in an oligarchy.
In any case, EU should not let go. Keep the pressure on.
