Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine

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.