Ukraine and the Eastern Partnership: ‘Lost in Translation’?

Abstract

Relations between Ukraine and the European Union, under the European Neighbourhood Policy and the newly launched Eastern Partnership Initiative, have undergone considerable progress in the development of multi-faceted forms of co-operation between the two sides. These include a gradual reorientation of the Ukrainian population westwards, and their incremental appreciation of European values, including those of democracy, freedoms and human rights. The 2010 presidential election serves as a testimony to Ukraine's growing commitment to European standards. On the negative side, however, a lack of balance between EU and Ukrainian interests can still be observed, as can a certain short-sightedness on the part of Brussels officials in treating Ukraine mainly as a cordon sanitaire between Europe and the post-Soviet territories. There is also a growing lack of motivation within the Ukrainian political elite to implement practical reforms, and this suggests limited partnership and transparency in Ukraine's relationship with the EU.

Notes

For more information, see <http://www.nato.mfa.gov.ua/missionnato/en/news/print/34411.htm>, accessed 11 Feb. 2010, and analytical commentary on the Ukrainian position available at <http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=35524>, accessed 10 April 2010.

For more information, see <http://www.mfa.gov.ua/missionnato/en/news/detail/37157.htm>, accessed 6 April 2010.

This article is based on extensive empirical fieldwork conducted in Ukraine during 2008–9. It included (i) a nation-wide survey (Nov. 2008), (ii) expert interviews (Dec. 2008–Jan. 2009), (iii) a study of school essays (March 2009) and (iv) focus groups (May 2009).

1. The sampling for Ukraine's survey included 1,200 respondents and was multi-staged, stratified and random; it was representative of the population aged 18+ (urban and rural) by nationality, sex, region, age and education. Survey interviews lasted on average 40–50 minutes using local languages for interlocution; sample representation error was no more than ±3 per cent. The questionnaire included three thematic blocks addressing: (i) foreign policy priorities (EU vis-à-vis Russia); (ii) relations with EU (knowledge, perceptions, type of relations) and (iii) the ENP/EaP's effectiveness (knowledge, perceptions, problems and future).

2. Twenty interviews with experts comprising members of Rada, officials of the MFA, civil servants, mass media and think-tank representatives, businessmen and members of political parties. Interviews were semi-structured, in-depth, audio-recorded when permitted and rendered anonymous when requested, and lasted on average 40–50 minutes. Interviews were mainly conducted in Ukrainian. The questionnaire largely mirrored the three thematic blocks of the survey.

3. A sampling of school essays (80 in total) involved three randomly selected secondary schools in Kiev, in which school leavers were requested, without prior warning, to write an essay of a maximum of two pages on pre-set questions. The survey lasted on average 30–45 minutes. Essays were rendered anonymous and computerized. The essays addressed the following three themes: (i) knowledge and perceptions of the EU; (ii) similarities with and differences from the EU and (iii) future relations with the EU.

4. Finally, ten focus groups were conducted in Kiev, L'viv and Donetsk, and on average comprised eight participants who were sampled using a snowballing method and a screening questionnaire. Individual groups included (i) students; (ii) females with higher education; (iii) males with higher education; (iv) think-tank members with some knowledge of the ENP/EaP and (v) a control group of mixed origin. Interviews lasted up to two hours and were audio- and video-recorded, using local languages for interlocution. The focus-group scenario mirrored the three thematic blocks used for the survey.

Presidential decree of 11 June 1998, No.615/98, ‘On approval of Ukraine's strategy of integration to the European Union’, available at <http://zakon.rada.gov.ua/cgi-bin/laws/main.cgi?nreg=615%2F98>, accessed 10 May 2010.

Presidential decree of 14 Sep. 2000, No.1072/2000, ‘On the program of integration of Ukraine to the European Union’, available at <http://zakon.rada.gov.ua/cgi-bin/laws/main.cgi?nreg=1072%2F2000>, accessed 10 May 2010.

The law ‘On the national programme of adapting legislation of Ukraine to the legislation of the European Union’, was adopted by Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on 27 Nov. 2003. The new edition of this programme was released under President Leonid Kuchma on 18 March 2004.

With the purpose of fulfilling the national programme, the cabinet of ministers issued a decree on 15 Oct. 2004, No.1365, on ‘Some issues of adaptation of legislation of Ukraine to the legislation of the European Union’. This decree approved the agenda of preparing and realizing a plan of measures for adapting Ukraine's legislation to that of the EU; it also created a Co-ordination Council and approved the Council's terms of reference. The cabinet of ministers also adopted decree on 2 July 2008, ‘On founding the State target programme of informing the public on issues of European integration of Ukraine for 2008–2011’. Since February 2010, an electronic bulletin, ‘Progress of European integration of Ukraine’, has been issued quarterly. The bulletin is distributed electronically among central and local administrative bodies, local self-government bodies, the diplomatic corps, NGOs and other interested organizations; the bulletin is also available from the section on European integration of the Ukrainian government at <http://www.kmu.gov.ua>. In addition, in order to implement the adopted national programme for European integration, annual plans are now being released and implemented. At the time of writing this article, there had been five such plans, mainly concerning issuing draft laws, designating specific institutions and transcribing responsibilities for the implementation of the acquis communautaire and sending them for adoption by Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

PCA between Ukraine and the EU was ratified by law in Ukraine No.237/94-VR on 10 Nov. 1994. However, it was not put into force until 1 March 1998, after all the required procedures had been completed. While Ukraine fulfilled all necessary procedural formalities by the end of 1994, it took almost four years for the EU member states to ratify their part of the agreement.

For more information, see <http://www.mfa.gov.ua/mfa/ua/publication/content/19138.htm>, accessed 2 May 2010.

Kostiantin Yeliseev, ‘Ukraina–ES: shcho den’ pryideshniy nam gotuye' [Ukraine–EU: What does tomorrow hold for us], Natsional'na bezpeka i oborona [National security and defence], 2009, No.1, available at <http://www.uceps.org/ukr/files/category_journal/NSD105_ukr_3.pdf>, accessed 3 Nov. 2010; Mikhailo Pashkov and Valeriy Chaliy, ‘Kudy vede “dorozhnya karta” evrointegratsii?’ [Where does a ‘road map’ of Eurointegration lead us?], Dzerkalo tyzhnya [Weekly Mirror], 2007, No.10, available at <http://www.dt.ua/1000/1600/56163>, accessed 3 Nov. 2010.

It was Oleg Rybachuk who planned to create a Euro-department in each ministry of Ukraine and to oblige ministers to elaborate a programme of European integration for their relevant ministries and sections.

Serhiy Kostyuk, State of affairs and Prospects of Co-operation of Ukraine with the European Union (Chernivtsi: Chernivtsi State University, 2004); Felix Baranovsky, The Coming of Democratic Political System and the Process of Ukraine's European Integration (Kyiv: Institute of Political and Ethno-national research, 2009); Andrey Kudriachenko (ed.), Ukraine in Europe: Search for Common Future (Kyiv: Fenix, 2009).

In particular, this was suggested by Grygory Nemyria, Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration and International Co-operation. This led to tensions between the cabinet of ministers and the presidential secretariat concerning leadership of this body, since, according to the Constitution, it is the president who is in charge of foreign and defence policy. For more information, see <http://ura-inform.com/politics/2008/03/31/agent>, accessed 3 April 2010.

The cabinet of Mykola Azarov, by decree of 31 March 2010, No.286, abolished this bureau and created a bureau of European integration within the secretariat of the cabinet of ministers. This provoked a sharply negative reaction from the head of the National Conservative Party, Oleg Soskin, who commented that ‘the new authorities started to blatantly and openly change Ukraine's geopolitical course’. For more information, see <http://uanato.info/index.php?pokaz=5806>, accessed 4 June 2010.

In May 2008, the first conference on ‘Ukraine–EU inter-parliamentary co-operation’ took place, with the participation of members of parliamentary friendship groups representing respectively the Ukrainian Rada and the EU member states. For more information, see <http://portal.rada.gov.ua/rada/control/uk/publish/article/news_left?art_id=118112&cat_id=37486>, accessed 6 June 2009.

At the time of writing this article, sections on international co-operation and European integration of the government web portal were being developed; this is thanks to the appointment of the new cabinet of Mykola Azarov. The latest information on sessions of these Committees can be found at <http://www.kmu.gov.ua/control/ru/publish/article?art_id=243291542&cat_id=206631593> accessed on 2 May 2010.

Commission of European Communities, ‘European Neighbourhood Policy: Strategy Paper’, COM 373 final, 12 May 2004, Brussels, available at <http://ec.europa.eu/world/enp/pdf/strategy/strategy_paper_en.pdf>, accessed 2 May 2010.

‘The Policy: What is the European Neighbourhood Policy?’, available at <http://ec.europa.eu/world/enp/policy_en.htm>, accessed 2 May 2010.

For more information, see <http://www.mfa.gov.ua/mfa/ua/publication/content/19132.htm>, accessed 2 May 2010.

The so-called ‘governance approach’; for more discussion of this, see Elena Korosteleva's article in this volume.

Gennadiy Druzenko, ‘European Neighbourhood Policy: First summary for Ukraine’, speech delivered at the conference ‘European integration: ways and means for an integrated and peaceful neighbourhood’, Yerevan (Armenia), July 2006, pp.38–46, available at <http://www.ichd.org/?laid=1&com=module&module=static&action=typelist&type=publication&PHPSESSID=daae814edf4e8aa6d651b07e0e43b3f5&page=2&dateDay=&dateMonth=&dateYear=&PHPSESSID=daae814edf4e8aa6d651b07e0e43b3f5>, accessed 10 June 2010.

For more information, see ECORYS progress report, 27 Nov. 2007, available at <http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2007/december/tradoc_137156.pdf>, accessed 10 June 2010.

For more information on EU–Ukraine trade, see <http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2006/september/tradoc_113459.pdf>, accessed 10 June 2010.

For more information, see the country section on Ukraine at <http://www.cisstat.com/eng/>, accessed 10 June 2010. The Single Economic Space, a notion that has developed out of a customs union between Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, with Ukraine a somewhat reluctant partner, has been accorded increasing significance recently, and in principle offers an alternative to the EU for members of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Following the establishment of common customs tariffs on 1 January 2010, the three leading members expressed their intention to establish a single economic space by 2012.

Expert research conducted by the non-governmental analytical Razumkov's Centre in December 2006; 103 experts were interviewed including government officials, think-tank representatives, NGO specialists and journalists. The results of research appear in ‘Vypolnenie Plana Deistvii Ukrainy–ES: otsenki ekspertov’ [The implementation of the Ukraine–EU Action Plan: Experts' review], Natsionalnaya bezopasnost' i oborona [National Security and Defence], Vol.2 (Kyiv: Razumkov's Centre, 2007), pp.22–31.

The term ‘EU-nization’ was first introduced by Heather Grabbe in her seminal book, The EU's Transformative Power (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), by which she meant the adoption of EU regulations and rule by national institutions.

Ukraine's MFA emphasized the limitations of the ENP for Ukraine, pointing out that this policy did not conform to Ukraine's strategic objective of gaining EU membership: see ‘Evropeis'ka polityka susidstva ne vidpovidae strategichniy meti Ukrainy’ [European Neighbourhood Policy does not conform to Ukraine's strategic aims', Unian information agency, 25 April 2009, available at <http://unian.net/ukr/news/news-312885.html>, accessed 2 May 2010.

Speech by the chairman of the People's Movement of Ukraine, Borys Tarasyuk, at the first inter-parliamentary conference of the representatives of friendship groups of the parliaments of Ukraine and the EU member states, ‘Inter-parliamentary co-operation Ukraine–EU’, Kyiv, 12 May 2008, available at <http://www.nru.org.ua/leader/?id=116>, accessed 10 June 2010.

For more information, see <http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:52008DC0823:EN:NOT>, accessed 2 May 2010.

For more information, see <http://www.mfa.gov.ua/mfa/ua/publication/content/31639.htm>, accessed 24 April 2010.

For more information, see <http://www.mfa.gov.ua/australia/en/news/detail/35542.htm>, accessed 10 June 2010.

For more information, see <http://www.mfa.gov.ua/mfa/ua/publication/content/43244.htm>, accessed 2 May 2010.

For more information, see the progress reports available at <http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/ukraine/index_en.htm>, accessed 10 June 2010.

For more information, see <http://www.mfa.gov.ua/mfa/ua/publication/content/37082.htm>, accessed 24 April 2010.

This point of view was voiced in particular by Volodymyr Vecherko, first deputy chairman of the Committee on European Integration, Verkhovna Rada: see <http://comeuroint.rada.gov.ua/komevroint/control/uk/publish/article;jsessionid=F393C141DDA15C513E348B0631531FCA?art>, accessed 24 April 2010.

Fritz Bolkenstein, Limits of Europe (Tielt, Belgium: Lannoo, 2004).

An East European saying, paraphrased.

Michael E. Smith, ‘The European Union and a Changing Europe: Establishing the Boundaries of Order’, Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol.34, No.1 (1996), pp.5–28 (pp.13–8).

For more discussion on the boundary-politics framework, see Elena Korosteleva's introductory article in this volume.

See Note 3 for details.

The experts include interviewees – members of the Rada, MFA, think-tanks, government and the mass media – with some expertise and knowledge of the ENP/EaP, and an expert focus group composed of eight participants (academics, government officials, NGO and think-tank representatives): see Note 3 for further details.

See <http://zakon1.rada.gov.ua/cgi-bin/laws/main.cgi?nreg=852-17>, accessed 15 June 2010.

‘European Neighbourhood Policy and Ukraine’, analytical report based on nation-wide survey, and prepared by Centre for Social and Marketing Research ‘SOCIS’ (2008) for the ESRC-funded project ‘Europeanising or Securitising the Outsiders?’, under the leadership of Dr Korosteleva (RES-061-25-0001).

The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Konstantin Eliseev, stated during a briefing in Kiev on 14 Jan. 2009 that modernization of the gas transport system of Ukraine requires 2.5 billion euros according to the estimation of the European Commission: see <http://vovremya.info/news/1231938123.html>, accessed 15 June 2010.

For more information, see the comparative analysis offered by Tanya Radchuk in her article ‘Contested Neighbourhood: Between Moscow and Brussels’, in this volume.

Interview with a political expert (male), Dec. 2008, Centre of Civil Society Problems Research in ‘European Vector of Ukraine's Foreign Policy’, Kyiv.

Interview with a civil servant (female), Dec. 2008, National Institute of Strategic Studies Under the Guidance of the President of Ukraine, Kyiv.

Romano Prodi, ‘A Wider Europe – A Proximity Policy as the Key to Stability’, Speech/02/619 at the sixth ECSA World Conference ‘Peace, Security and Stability – International Dialogue and the Role of the EU’, Brussels, 5–6 Dec. 2002.

Interview with a senior official (male), 15 Dec. 2008, MFA, Kyiv.

The case in point relates to the attempt to create a unitary local Orthodox Church in Ukraine, independent of the Moscow Patriarchate. This course for unification of Orthodoxy in the country was actively supported by President Viktor Yushchenko, but provoked active resistance from the Moscow Patriarchate which does not recognize the canonicity of the UOC of the Kyivan Patriarchate.

It is stated that the purpose of this issue is ‘to raise the level of professional competence of central and local authorities’ personnel, informing the public and all Ukrainian society concerning events in the sphere of European integration policy': available at <http://sta.gov.ua/doccatalog/document?id=243781>, accessed 2 May 2010.

This was voiced during a popular political TV programme ‘Shuster Live’ at the end of March 2010. Broad and vehement discussions of this statement forced Semynozhenko to provide further explanations concerning his statement: see <http://novynar.com.ua/politics/109987>, accessed 2 May 2010.

The new authorities become increasingly aware that ‘the level of public support for Ukraine's European integration is insufficient. Now less than 50 per cent of Ukrainian population believe that Ukraine must join the European Union. It is an alarming signal’: Eurointegratsyuny postup Ukrainy [Ukraine's Position towards Eurointegration], 2010, No.1, available at <http://sta.gov.ua/doccatalog/document?id=243781>, accessed 2 May 2010.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Oleksandr Stegniy

Oleksandr Stegniy is chief executive of the Centre for Social and Marketing Research ‘SOCIS’ and a senior member of the Institute of Sociology, Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. He is the author of over 100 publications, including four monographs.