This was stated by Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, Chair of the Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the EU, during the discussion "From Independence to the EU: Are Ukrainian Laws Ready for European Standards". The discussion was organised by the Network for the Protection of National Interests "ANTS".
In her speech, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze stressed that despite the declarative slogans of commitment to the European integration course, there are alarming signals in Ukraine today of a rollback of the democratic gains made during the Revolution of Dignity. "On 22 July, we, unfortunately, as a country, gave every reason for our partners to doubt how seriously we are committed to achieving results. And now I believe that any assessment, any step that relates to our progress towards the European Union will be much more scrutinised." According to the Committee Chair, the next report of the European Commission on EU enlargement, expected at the end of October, will be much tougher on the criteria and conditions that Ukraine will have to fulfil if it continues to aim for rapid progress towards the European Union. Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze suggests that the prospect of opening at least the first negotiation cluster during the Danish presidency of the EU Council, i.e. by the end of this year, unfortunately, seems unrealistic. "Unfortunately, this is a whole system of external and internal influences that do not allow our friends who are really promoting and lobbying Ukraine from within the EU to move faster to have enough arguments to insist on opening the first cluster now," the Committee Chair said.
Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze is convinced that external obstacles to the opening of negotiations with the EU should not be an excuse for not fulfilling internal commitments. "The main things are precisely in this cluster of "Fundamentals". The main things are about the rule of law, the independence of the judiciary, the transparency of the appointment of judges, the integrity of judges, the selection of judges, and so on. Without this framework, we will never be members of the EU, even if we meet all the economic indicators, implement all the EU directives and regulations in the economic sphere," said the chair of the Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the EU.
She also stressed that it is unacceptable to create new institutional mechanisms for individuals or political forces. This should only happen through an inclusive dialogue with civil society, the parliament and the opposition: "Without an inclusive dialogue with civil society, with business associations, with the parliamentary opposition, with the parliament as such, no proposals to create a new institutional mechanism, coordination mechanism, and so on, will take off. They will be doomed to failure. And this is a big problem," said Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze.
The Chair of the Committee noted that Ukraine's powerful resource on its way to the European Union is people - professionals working in government and non-government institutions. They form the backbone of European integration not only during the progress towards EU membership, but also after it is gained. "These people, experts, in communities, in parliament, in governmental and non-governmental institutions, are our resource that will enable us to be successful... We definitely want to be a strong state, not a lame duck in the European Union. We do not want to be taken there out of pity. No, we deserve to be there because we have a lot to bring. But to do this, we need to look at ourselves in the mirror and see our shortcomings, work to eliminate them, and then we will succeed," Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze summed up.