Political crisis in Ukraine puts a break on the Euro-integration

30 June 2007

Within the framework of the 4th annual Yalta European strategy (YES) meeting there was held a round table session "Political scene in Ukraine" dedicated to political situation in the country and its effect on the Euro-integration process.

In the round table participated representatives of prominent domestic political forces - Leonid Kozhara (Regions party), Grygoriy Nemyraya (Julia Tymoshenko block), Ksenia Lyapina (Nasha Ulraina), Nikolai Rudkovskyi (Socialist party of Ukraine). Moderator of the round table was a German politologist Alexander Rahr.

Participants gave their views on the political crisis as well as its solution. Though manifold and often contradictory, all speeches had in common a notion that political crisis puts a break on Ukraine's accession to the EU. Besides, the roundtable participants assented that all domestic prominent political forces support the idea of the Euro-integration of Ukraine.

Political forces' representatives emphasized a role of the rule of law as the only condition of political crisis solution and progression towards Europe. "The rule of law has to be established through independent judicial system", - noted Leonid Kozhara. "When we say the EU we mean not only economics constituents of it but also and foremost a rule of law", - emphasized Nikolai Rudkovskyi.

YES is an independent organization, which brings together high-level participants in Ukraine, and internationally: policy-makers, business leaders, thinkers, researchers and journalists. The annual YES summits in Yalta have become the leading informal high-level forum focused on discussing and development of political recommendations. In 2006, the YES experts developed an analytical document "Agenda-2020", representing a step-by-step strategy for Ukraine's accession to the European Union in 2020. YES was created at the initiative of a Ukrainian businessman and public figure, Victor Pinchuk in spring 2004.

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Anders Aslund
Anders Aslund
Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics, 8th YES Annual Meeting, 2011
«Ukraine possesses high economic potential which is not used in full»