Integration with the European Union is a long and difficult process; after the summit with the EU, Ukraine should not expect any serious progress in this matter. On Tuesday, October 12, the deputy chairman of the Federation Council committee on economic policy Valery Vasiliev told Izvestia about this.
He noted that the Kiev authorities are unlikely to seriously rely on the West, since today the EU has too many internal problems, including those states that since 2014 have actively supported Ukraine’s policy on European integration.
“It should be understood that the integration processes with the EU are a very long and complex process that requires Ukraine to fulfill many conditions, including those that the Ukrainian leadership is not ready to fulfill today,” the senator stressed.
According to Vasiliev, Europe is interested in increasing gas supplies, and the situation around Ukraine is just a bargaining chip. The political situation has long been not on the Ukrainian side, and the closer the winter, the more everyone worries about their own energy security, the politician added.
As the senator pointed out, the Ukraine-EU summit in the end will not bring Kiev either material or moral satisfaction.
“Kiev, most likely, will receive some insignificant economic assistance from the West, as well as numerous assurances of the desire for integration, but as long as the military conflict continues inside Ukraine, it is not worth talking about serious integration processes,” he concluded.
Earlier that day, during a joint summit, Ukraine and the European Union signed agreements on a common aviation space, on the country’s joining the Horizon Europe research and innovation program, as well as on Ukraine’s participation in the Creative Europe program in 2021–2027.
It was indicated that the event was attended by the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, the head of the European Council Charles Michel, as well as the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.
After the talks at the summit, the Ukrainian leader noted that the country does not have a sufficient understanding of when it will reach the finish line in the process of European integration. The EU must give a signal to the Ukrainian society, he urged.
On the eve of the European Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson called the key goal of the full integration of the energy market of Ukraine into the EU market. The process includes the synchronization of the power grids of Ukraine and continental Europe. Achieving transparency in the energy market is also an important goal, Simson said.
On October 8, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine addressed the European Parliament and the parliaments of the EU member states with a statement, which outlined the priority issues of integration into the EU. Also, Ukrainian parliamentarians called for tougher sanctions against Russia, in particular, asking the European Union to take measures to ban the Nord Stream 2 project as allegedly carrying risks to Europe’s energy security.
Kiev signed an Association Agreement with the EU in 2014. The document entered into full force in 2016. According to him, Ukrainian manufacturers have gained access to the European market, but without duties they can only sell 36 types of goods in limited quantities. Having exhausted the quotas, Ukraine is deprived of preferential terms. At the same time, Ukraine renounced its non-aligned status and consolidated its entry into the EU and NATO in the main law with foreign policy goals.