“When the Fanfares Echoed”: How Ukraine Could Miss a Historic Chance

Source: Author’s Facebook page

The opening of the “Foundations” section (“cluster”) in the negotiations on accession to the EU is a very important stage, if only because it launches a mechanism for monitoring the progress of reforms.

It is also important that a readiness assessment (“screening”) has been launched for five more sections; they are checking their readiness for opening.

But it is important to remember: chapters are difficult to open – but even more difficult to “close” – to state that the necessary changes have been made and their quality meets standards.

This last point is very important. Because the EU will not allow “just anything” to be approved without reading and without discussion – and demand to “finally name a date.”

They will go out of their way to accommodate you, offering comfortable working conditions. Much like in the EU, people- and results-centric.

According to the “Fundamentals”, they proposed a whole new procedure, preliminary preparation (“forload”). They agreed on only 10 points of anti-corruption changes, announced them in the Kachka-Kos statement only in December… and were surprised to see that zero of them had been implemented.

Now reforms are sewn into memoranda before funds are allocated. You can’t do it yourself – let’s include “conditionality”: money in exchange for reforms.

It won’t even come to that – they will gladly push it to the sidelines and start taking care of the “easier” Moldova, Albania, the Balkans… And Peter Magyar is already accusing Ukraine of being “unfair” to be dragged ahead of the Balkans. And all the stabs by the Ukrainian authorities will feed such sentiments.

We have to carve out our future ourselves. Through work – together, combining all our strengths. That’s the only way it works.

Otherwise, we may lose a historic chance. And it will be completely indifferent to whom the authorities will call guilty of their boastful blunders.

Ukrainians are not shedding blood to endure imitation instead of returning to their European home.

I took the illustration with assessments of Ukraine’s progress against the background of other candidates from Valeriy Pekar.

To achieve an acceptable result, you have to work and work.

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