The European Union has recently started negotiations on Ukraine’s accession. This decision is, first of all, political and determined by the geopolitical situation on the continent, Russian aggression against Ukraine, which made European countries take a different look at us and the European Union as a space of freedom, democracy and the rule of law that should be expanded.
However, it would have been impossible to start negotiations without Ukraine’s extensive internal work carried out after the Revolution of Dignity. So, legally, the EU decision is based on Ukraine’s achievements. When applying for EU membership, the Ukrainian side filled out the European Commission’s questionnaire, in which it recorded its progress in implementing Ukraine-EU Association Agreement signed and ratified in 2014. Ukraine concluded the first partnership and cooperation agreement with the EU back in 1994.
Along with the start of the negotiations, the European Commission made public the so-called negotiating framework. “The framework is very similar to the one offered to Albania, for example. The framework already changes certain approaches, moving away from negotiations on each individual chapter of the 34 chapters. These will be so-called clusters,” explains Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Ukraine’s Integration into the EU, “that is, areas, groups of chapters, in which the country will negotiate, which will be opened and closed. That’s good. We’ll have a wider opportunity to perform tasks in this or that area. Countries that joined earlier opened, for example, the Fisheries chapter. And if you completed this chapter, you can open another one. And all this was opened in separate chapters. And now these things are organized into groups.”
According to her, this will make it possible to work in several areas in parallel and advance in a comprehensive manner. “It seems to me that this will give us additional opportunities, but will also place additional demands on us in terms of the scope of tasks we’ll have to deal with,” says Klympush-Tsintsadze. “And here it is very important that we do not strive for speed and just another picture. Because when we, as a state, report that we have done something, we usually have to redo it several times. Because we did it quickly, didn’t work with various stakeholders, didn’t take into account some details, because we think we can bypass these details or ignore them.”
Now, Ukraine is in that point of the process where every detail plays a role, so it is important to have an inclusive dialogue between the government and society. The closed nature of the public administration system will have to be changed.
European integration will increasingly require tough, sometimes unpopular decisions that will necessitate an open public debate. Otherwise, we risk serious misunderstanding and resistance to European integration. “Just after the negotiations started, I suddenly saw a wave of various publications saying that we shouldn’t go to the European Union, and that we don’t benefit from it. We should not fight it with slogans. We must have arguments,” the head of the Parliament’s European integration committee emphasizes.
Vasile Puscas, the chief negotiator from Romania, who negotiated with Brussels when his country joined the European Union, also emphasizes the need for constant dialogue with society. “I spent a lot of time with civil society organizations, with those we call social partners in Brussels. I mean the business community, trade unions and so on. I had to work very closely with them,” says Vasile Puscas.
In his turn, Serhii Sydorenko, editor of Yevropeiska Pravda, notes that the updated approach to the negotiation framework has both positive and negative aspects. “In general, it is believed that after the EU switched to a cluster approach, this switch was made in order to slow down the then candidate states – the Western Balkan states – so they do not move too fast. Therefore, this cluster approach can be applied in different ways,” says Serhii Sydorenko. At the same time, he considers it a positive thing that the negotiation framework pays special attention to issues fundamental to the EU. It is about democracy, the rule of law, human rights, etc.
“This has always been important, but after the mega enlargement in 2004, as well as in 2007, the EU got a little burned because some of the states entered it not being sufficiently ready for the full implementation of democratic practices. After that, these requirements were strengthened. All this will take effect during the negotiations with Ukraine,” Sydorenko explains. Therefore, in his opinion, Ukraine should definitely not expect any easing of requirements in the cluster devoted to fundamental issues.
The editor of Yevropeiska Pravda also notes that the peculiarity of the negotiation framework and negotiations in general is that the “Fundamentals” cluster will be opened first and closed last. That is, after Ukraine fulfills all the requirements, they will be reviewed again and it will be decided whether we fully meet the requirements.
In the context of implementing other European integration tasks, Serhii Sydorenko believes that the biggest problem is that sometimes not only the authorities, but also the citizens do not understand the complexity of this process. “Everything will be a mega challenge for us, – he says. – There is no European acquis in some chapters, and accordingly, there is little work there. However, we have a lot of work to do in absolutely all chapters without exception. There are certain chapters where the difficulty is that we will not be able to fulfill it in principle by the time of accession.”
In these cases, the EU can grant Ukraine, as it happened with other states before, transitional periods for full harmonization of national legislation with European legislation. “For example, if we are talking about environmental issues, this cluster is supposed to contain the highest number of transitional periods. Because the situation with the environment is very difficult, in particular due to Russian aggression,” the journalist notes.
He warns against underestimating the complexity of the EU accession process. “This is a real problem… Because when expectations are built on the fact that we are good, resisting the Russian aggressor, and therefore should be taken to Europe tomorrow, they will cause disappointment in the fact that we are not taken. And from this one can draw a false conclusion: this is not because we do not do what is necessary, but because we are not wanted there. Such high expectations about speed can lead to Euroscepticism,” Sydorenko explains. Such trends are now being observed in the Western Balkan states, which simply did not do their homework.
Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze believes that in this context a balance is needed between the awareness of the complexity and the attainability of the goal. “We are not the first to go this way. In the conditions of war, it is much more difficult to move towards this goal. However, this does not mean that it is unattainable. But don’t lie to people. Do not promise that we will be in the EU tomorrow. But it does not mean they don’t want us there. Always look in the mirror. We have flaws, they are serious. Let’s honestly look and see them, recognize them and work on them, she says. – But it also seems to me that there are many things that we can do with the help of the media, trying to change people’s behavior in everyday life as well.”
It is about the protection of consumer rights, attitude to the environment, compliance with traffic rules, etc. “We know how to demonstrate our concern in a crisis situation (and this is what the vast majority of Ukrainian society does today). But how do we turn this concern into daily additional work?” – the people’s deputy sums up.