Brussels, 08/07/2004 (Agence Europe) - The EU/Ukraine Summit which took place in The Hague on Thursday- the first since the enlargement of the Union, which has made the two partners next-door neighbours- allowed both sides to reaffirm their political will to strengthen their relations, and not create new divisions in Europe, but did not allow them to resolve certain technical problems which are of particular importance to Ukraine. Ukraine was represented in The Hague by its President Leonid Koutchma, and the European delegation was led by Jan Peter Balkenende (current President of the European Council), Romano Prodi, Javier Solana and Chris Patten.
One of the outstanding problems is the development of an action plan to make concrete the European neighbourhood policy (ENP), which the Commission developed in order to create an improved framework for future relations with neighbour countries of the East and South which are not candidates for accession. Technical work on this action plan is ongoing, despite initial plans to adopt it at the Summit. A joint press release adopted after the meeting states that the leaders simply "took note" of consultations underway on this action plan. Both sides also underlined the importance of continuing discussions on this subject in coming weeks. During the press conference which followed the Summit, Mr Balkenende said that the future action plan will lay down precisely how relations between the EU and Ukraine can be reinforced "not only in words, but also through concrete actions". "It must be a genuine action plan", he insisted. In his speech on the ENP just before, Mr Koutchma had also welcomed that fact that "despite all the changes and difficulties caused by enlargement, the EU is demonstrating a striving to deepen relations with neighbouring countries, including Ukraine". Ukraine accepts this offer of a closer relationship, and will work for integration and involvement in the internal market, and access to industrial programmes.
A second issue which is close to the Ukrainians' heart, and which was not resolved on Thursday, is that of Ukraine's economic status. Kiev has long been asking the EU for market economy status, which would allow Ukrainian companies to take advantage of much more favourable treatment under EU anti-dumping procedures. This is an "important" subject, on which Ukraine is pushing for a "swift decision", Mr Balkenende told the press. However, the EU feels that Ukraine is not there yet, despite significant progress in economic reforms underway. "Both sides agreed that Ukraine will obtain its market economy status once the necessary conditions are met", said the joint press release. The President of the Commission, Romano Prodi, explained to the journalists that both problems must be resolved before the Commission could grant market economy status: reduce the level of State intervention in the economy, and improve bankruptcy legislation.
A third Ukrainian request (which also failed to elicit a substantial positive response on Thursday) concerns the visa obligation imposed by the EU on Ukrainian citizens wishing to travel to the Member States' territory. In his speech to the Summit, President Koutchma appealed to the EU to simplify its visa requirements and agree to the idea that the end goal should be the abolition of all visa requirements. "Ukraine thinks that a so-called Schengen wall should not arise at the EU's current borders. We need to preserve active human and intergovernmental contacts. The long-term aim of our relations should be to gradually simplify the visa process and abolish EU visa requirements", said Mr Koutchma. The joint Summit press release devotes just one sentence to the subject: "Summit leaders agreed to move forward a constructive dialogue on visa issues".
In the political field, the EU, amongst other things, underlined the need to Ukraine to respect democratic values and principles, including respect for press freedom. The presidential elections of 31 October (for which President Koutchma will not be standing) should take place under international democratic standards, reads the joint statement. "We insist that the elections should be free and fair", said Mr Balkenende.
The EU and Ukraine also repeated their willingness to promote peace and security in the world, and to co-operate in the fight against terrorism and against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.