EU membership prospect in association agreement changes nothing for Ukraine

Ambassador of Czech Republic to Ukraine Ivan Pocuch believes that the clause about Ukraine's eventually getting EU membership in an Association Agreement will not change anything for Ukraine.

"You should understand that the membership prospect doesn't appear as a result of being stipulated in a document. And the presence or absence of this prospect doesn't change anything for Ukraine at the current stage of relations. This clause doesn't mean much," he said in an interview with the Kommersant Ukraine newspaper issued on Monday.

According to the diplomat, what is more important for Kyiv is to get what the European Union is offering today in the text of this agreement.

"And these proposals are very significant. The EU is opening its market to Ukraine - you gain access to a number of European structural funds, and the opportunity to join European programs that will help the country to continue its democratic reforms," he said.

Pocuch added that he did not understand why Kyiv chose to give up all these possibilities only to insist on "a wording that is not relevant to the present, which describes what is not even the subject of debate yet and could become so only in the distant future."

The Czech diplomat said he believes that after the association agreement is initialed there will be problems with its ratification by countries of the EU, due to Kyiv's noncompliance with fundamental values and principles.

"One of them is respect for a fair and transparent justice system. Obviously, this principle is not fully observed during many trials. And it's not just the case of Yulia Tymoshenko, but also some of the cases against other opposition politicians," Pocuch said.

In this regard, he said that even if the document is initialed there would be problems with its ratification anyway.

"This is not only about the Czech parliament. I expect the problems in the parliaments of all the EU member states. At present Europe has a unified vision of the situation in Ukraine," the diplomat said.


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