Enduring Crisis in Ukraine
A Test Case for European Neighborhood Policy
SWP Comment 2007/C 09, 15.05.2007, 4 Pages Research AreasA Test Case for European Neighborhood Policy
SWP Comment 2007/C 09, 15.05.2007, 4 Pages Research AreasAs negotiations over an "enhanced agreement" begin between the European Union and Ukraine, the EU’s neighbor is again embroiled in a stubborn internal conflict over power and resources that will lead to early parliamentary elections and possibly to a premature presidential election too. Although the economy is stable and the country has good prospects of joining the WTO in fall 2007, Ukraine is currently politically paralyzed. The conservative left alliance of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and the quarreling democratic nationalist forces around President Viktor Yushchenko and former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko continue to face off irreconcilably. The Ukrainian parliament that was elected in free and fair elections just one year ago is on the point of being dissolved. The EU is regarded as a mediator, and it should adopt this role as part of its neighborhood policy.