13 October 2021, 09:17
Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze: “Ukraine with its commitment to the values of freedom can play the role of the leader in renewed Europe”
The Chair of the Committee on Ukraine’s Integration into the EU took
part in the presentation of the publication “Ukraine: 30 years on the
European Path” of the Razumkov Center. The participants of the
presentation discussed the achievements and failures of Ukraine on its
path to formation as an independent European state.
Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze is convinced that the greatest achievement
during these thirty years was a clear definition of the vector of
development: “We had multi-vector, not aligned drift towards the
Russian Federation and only a small share of these 30 years we moved to
Europe. At the same time, Ukraine still faces significant challenges,”
the Chair of the Committee states. This challenge is in the transition
from a paternalistic, post-colonial society to a modern, liberal and
society-oriented model: “Now we face a postponed statehood. The
Revolution on Granite, two Maidans, it all was the stages of formation
before an explosion of self-identification, real political
transformation from public friendship with a older brother to awareness
of the need for integration into the European Union and NATO”.
Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze is confident that Ukraine's future will be
successful in the European family: “Ukraine, with its devotion to the
fundamental values of freedom, can play the role of a new leader in
renewed Europe”.
The Chair of the Committee believes that Ukraine has a full right to
claim membership in the European Union, but it should analyze why the
attitude has changed within the EU to its expansion: “The experience of
not quite ready Romania and Bulgaria is one of the factors, why the EU
does not have an appetite to further expansion for those countries that
are not ready. Because, in fact, certain unfolded basic things in
Hungary and Poland today create additional problems in the rule of law,
democracy, balances, freedoms”. Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze noted that
in some European capitals there was a fear of the Russian Federation,
and it was necessary to work towards eliminating of this fear.
At the same time, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze disagreed with the fact
that sectoral integration was currently key to Ukraine. In her opinion,
European partners draw insufficient attention to the political part of
the Association Agreement: “I believe that the political part of the
Association Agreement is very broad, which allows to the Ukrainian
leadership to report on achieving goals of political dialogue, as
performed, but, in fact, there is a roll back. Even if Ukraine does
everything to ensure business integration, sectoral, economic things
work out without the political part of the association it will be
difficult to insist on the open door in the European Union for
Ukraine”, the Chair of the committee stated.