New Europe

Baltic states want EU to ease Ukraine’s path to Brussels

31 January 2010 – Issue : 871

The European Union should give Ukraine special status and encourage it
towards membership no matter who wins the country’s presidential
elections 7 February, the foreign ministers of Lithuania and Estonia
said at a meeting with EU counterparts. The EU is keen to strengthen
its influence in Ukraine to counter-balance Russia’s resurgent
diplomacy there. In the first round of the presidential elections on
January 17, Viktor Yanukovich, seen as the pro-Moscow candidate,
romped to an impressive lead.
`Ukraine deserves special status in relations to the EU … It’s clear
that partnership is not enough for Ukraine, but they’re not ready for
membership: what they really need from my point of view is mentoring,’
said Lithuanian Foreign Minister Vygaudas Usackas. Ukraine is the
largest member of the EU’s so-called Eastern Partnership, a
cooperation program which also links the EU with Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Belarus, Georgia and Moldova. Pro-Western groups in Ukraine say that
the partnership is only the first step towards eventual EU membership,
a stance which EU states such as Poland and the Baltics echo.
`Ukraine, like all other European countries, should have a clear
perspective of EU membership, but it’s up to Ukraine how they develop
and what kind of steps they are ready to take,’ Estonian Foreign
Minister Urmas Paet said. Over the last five years, the pro-Western
government in Kiev has pushed for closer ties with the EU and NATO,
despite hostile comments from Russia and from ethnic Russian
communities in Ukraine. Usackas said that that stance was not likely
to change even if Yanukovich – seen in the last set of elections in
2004 as the Kremlin’s preferred candidate – came to power. `I don’t
think Yanukovich is anti-European. I think he, like (challenger and
Prime Minister Yulia) Tymoshenko, is first and foremost
pro-Ukrainian,’ Usackas said.