Vilnius, 28/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - At the Eastern Partnership business forum on 28 November Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Füle denied that €160 billion would be the cost for Ukraine to implement the association agreement with its free-trade area. “The figure of €160 billion quoted by some as an estimate of the adjustment costs which would be involved by Ukraine is neither proportionate nor credible”, he said. “This figure, even if it is spread over a period of ten years, would correspond to 10% of Ukraine's annual GDP in terms of adjustment costs. This deeply contradicts the experience of the accession candidate countries that have adopted the whole of the EU acquis and where the overall costs were a few percentage points of GDP per year at the most”, he continued.
Füle also expressed his disappointment that the financing needed by Ukrainian businesses in order to modernise is considered “as a cost rather than as an investment”. “The Ukrainian economy needs enormous investment, but this is not a cost”, he added, stating that the only costs that he sees are those of “inaction allowing further stagnation of the economy and risking the country's economic future and health”.
Later, during the forum on civil society, Füle said that signing was a “unique opportunity to reverse the discouraging downward trend of foreign direct investment in Ukraine and to give momentum to the negotiations with the IMF”. “Many new opportunities for modernisation and investment that the agreement with its deep and comprehensive free-trade area would have brought Ukraine and its citizens will be deferred”, he added.
Underlining the demonstrations of support for the signature of the agreement in Ukraine, Füle, who was due to meet the 28 members of the Ukrainian opposition, stated that “the citizens have again shown over recent days that they fully understood and espoused the historic nature of the European association”. A former president of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, who led the European Parliament mission in Ukraine, stressed that many citizens across Ukraine, especially young people, “want to embrace the partnership as a springboard for the future”. He said that they must keep “the door open”, “the perspective that they can achieve what they want to achieve”.
Cox said that he had had many meetings with Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych, and stated that it was only last week that Yanukovych had mentioned the possibility of suspending the preparations for signing the association agreement. “There is no doubt that there was pressure from Moscow, no doubt that it played a role”, he added.
Barroso-Van Rompuy-Yanukovych trilateral. At the end of the afternoon on 28 November, President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso and President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy were due to meet Yanukovych. This meeting could provide the opportunity for Yanukovych to explain his position at a time when the Swedish foreign affairs minister has warned of “incoherent messages” coming from Ukraine's authorities.
Yulia Tymoshenko calls for signature of agreement. Ukraine's former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, called on the EU to sign the association agreement at the summit if the president again does a u-turn and decides to sign. “If under the pressure of the demonstrations in Ukraine, Yanukovych decides to sign the agreement at the last minute anyway (…) I ask you to sign without hesitation on Friday and without conditions - including regarding my own release”, she said in a message carried by those close to her. “In signing an agreement with us, you will help a whole people cross a civilisation divide created by the mistaken ideologies and aggressive empires”, she added (our translation throughout). (CG/transl.fl)