Ukraine to finalise EU accession agreement in Warsaw in September?

Protests mark Indepedence Day in Kiev; photo - EPA/Sergey Dolzhenko

Poland has said that bringing Kiev closer to the EU is one of its top priorities during its six-month rotating presidency of the EU Council, which began on 1 July.

The unofficial information from Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry comes a day after Ukraine celebrated 20 years of independence after it split from the decaying Soviet Union in 1991.

Supporters of opposition parties demonstrated against wide-spread corruption in the country and against legal proceedings launched against Ukraine’s former prime minister and key opposition figure Yulia Timoshenko, a trial deemed possibly politically motivated by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Yulia Tymoshenko is facing charges of abusing her term as prime minister while concluding gas contracts between Ukrainian Naftogaz and Russian Gazprom in 2008.
The case, which has raised concerns in Brussels, may pose a threat to the finalizing of the EU Accession Agreement, and will also be on the agenda of bilateral talks in Warsaw.

Poland has frequently expressed hope that the document would be signed during Poland’s rotating presidency.

“It would be our joint Polish-Ukrainian success,” said Foreign Affairs chief Radosław Sikorski in Kiev in June.

Although the agreement, paving the way for a free trade zone between Ukraine and the European Union, does not provide prospects for EU membership, it brings the country closer to EU structures. (ab/pg)