Experts say Ukraine could sign association agreement with EU after presidential election
Kyiv, December 4 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine may be able to sign an agreement of association with the European Union after the January 17, 2010 presidential election, experts said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.
"It's clear that the EU won't sign the agreement ahead of the presidential election… All events about deciding our future fate in the EU will develop after the presidential election," President of the Open Policy Analytical Center Ihor Zhdanov said while commenting on the prospects of the 13th Ukraine-EU summit.
Political expert Oleksiy Mustafin said that "Europe's, and to a great extent America's, tiredness with Ukraine" is currently being observed. He said that the hopes of European countries for positive change in the Ukrainian state after the 2004 presidential election had not been borne out.
Mustafin forecast that the Ukraine-EU summit would not result in anything substantial, and "this has a negative effect on [Ukrainian President Viktor] Yuschenko's administration"
"Europe will turn over a new leaf [in its relations with Ukraine] on January 18 or in February. This is profitable for Europe," he said.
Director of the Penta Center for Applied Political Studies Volodymyr Fesenko characterized the essence of the summit as an "amber light to [Ukraine] on its way to European integration, not a red one - there's no ban or refusal." He also said that this is a "yellow card to our leadership concerning the fulfillment of our commitments to the European Union."
Fesenko described the summit as "intermediate."
"The agreement itself [will be signed] no earlier than the next New Year, already under a new president," he said.
The 13th Ukraine-EU summit is being held in Kyiv on Friday.