Economic association agreement between Ukraine and EU is political, experts say

Economic association agreement between Ukraine and EU is political, experts say

Today in Moscow a closed-door meeting was held between the prime ministers of Russia and Ukraine, Dmitry Medvedev and Nikolai Azarov. The meeting was organized to discuss the most painful subject of bilateral relationships, the upcoming signing of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and EU at the Vilnius summit, which, in fact, will close ways to Eurasian integration to Ukraine and will nullify the efforts of the Russian Federation to bring Ukraine into the Customs Union.

Russian and Ukrainian experts, vice-president of the Development Fund of the Eurasian cooperation Andrei Smirnov and director of the Center for Applied Political Studies Penta Volodymyr Fesenko, drew our attention the fact that Ukraine is making a move, not only and not so much on economic as on political grounds, as it is carrying out a kind of "migration" to the West.

Smirnov said that the signing of this agreement might lead to a cooling in relations between Russia and Ukraine, precisely because it is a political move. "If you are to weigh the purely economic aspect, here we are more inclined to trust the Russian presidential aide Sergey Glazyev, who has very clearly explained with examples the losses incurred by Ukraine in case of signing the contract. Because it will naturally affect trade relations with Moscow. This is a purely political move, beyond which there are no economic prospects. So if the leadership of Ukraine is ready to do so, they must be prepared for the relevant consequences," the expert said.

Vladimir Fesenko, in turn, explained that from the Ukrainian point of view the situation looks somewhat different: both European and Eurasian integration poses new challenges to Ukraine, which is why the choice is being made on the basis of political motivations rather than economic ones. "The main challenge, in my opinion, is political and not related to the economy. That is, that the new agreement with the EU actually negates the possibility of Ukraine's participation in integration projects that are initiated by Russia, in the Customs Union and, in the long term, the Eurasian Union. This is important,"  Fesenko underlined.

4240 views
Поделиться:
Print: