Brussels, 16/11/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 16 November, the Ukrainian ambassador to the EU, Kostiantyn Yelisieiev, called on the European Union to take a decision on the EU-Ukraine summit - which was due to take place at the end of 2012 but which has been put back due to legislative elections in Ukraine. He would like the Foreign Affairs Council of 19 November to ask the EU “to fix a date for the EU-Ukraine summit as quickly as possible” and he underlined the need for discussion at high political level, in addition to technical dialogues. “We can fix a date for the beginning of 2013 but let's fix a date - it can be mid-January or February - but I don't seen any (European) motivation for this”, he said to a small group of journalists, adding that over the summer he had called for a date to be chosen at a technical level, even if it means then seeing at the political level if the summit should take place on this date or not. “The EU is taking a kind of break with Ukraine”, he said in concern.
Yelisieiev thus spoke of his expectations for the Council on 19 November. Amongst other things at high political level, he expects from the Council “a political commitment from the EU towards Ukraine, for dialogue to continue and be strengthened”. He does not think there should be a “break” in EU-Ukraine relations. He also wants ministers to underline the importance of Ukraine's European integration and the importance of signing the association agreement. In addition, he wants the Europeans to support the improvement of personal contact - with significant progress in the discussions on visa facilitation. “The status quo in our relationship is not acceptable”, he said.
The EU is not always fair. Yelisieiev stated that the EU is not always fair and that if it pays some attention to Ukraine it sometimes “over-reacts” - for example, the EU's reaction to the law on prosecution before the EU had had time to study it.
Need for a political signal on the elections. Coming back to the subject of the parliamentary elections in his country, Yelisieiev thought it would be normal for a high representative from the EU to visit Ukraine by the end of the year in order to meet the new political forces and hold discussions with Ukrainian officials. He recalled that European Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Füle and the deputy secretary general of the European External Action Service, Helga Schmid, had done this in Georgia, travelling there 18 days after the parliamentary elections.
In Yelisieiev's view, “we passed the test (of the elections) - not with an excellent mark but we are progressing and discussing Ukraine's next commitments in European policies”. Acknowledging that “from a technical point of view the elections weren't perfect”, he said that Ukraine is still awaiting “a complete assessment of the elections - including the technical aspects and also a political assessment”. Yelisieiev also underlined that these elections were competitive, fair and free, and that the results reflect the choice of the Ukrainians - a pro-European choice - with four or five parties to the parliament supporting this European track. “We are taking the EU's concerns into account seriously, and we are ready to work on the problems that arose during the elections”, he said - recalling the commitment of his prime minister to review the electoral law, for example. (CG/transl.fl)