Tymoshenko Release: Ukraine's Geopolitical Future Hangs on Deal

[unhappycamper]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/tymoshenko-release-could-pave-way-for-eu-ukraine-trade-deal-a-930917.html



EU negotiators have arrived in Ukraine to try to secure the release of imprisoned former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. A successful agreement will pave the way for a free trade deal and unprecedented cooperation between the EU and Ukraine -- as well as a new rift with Russia.

Tymoshenko Release: Ukraine's Geopolitical Future Hangs on Deal
By Christopher Alessi
October 30, 2013 – 06:14 PM

European Union mediators returned to Ukraine Tuesday to negotiate the release of imprisoned former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in a last-ditch effort to salvage a pending EU-Ukraine association agreement.

The treaty, set to be signed at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius on Nov. 28, includes a sweeping free trade deal between the EU and Ukraine. The pact is expected to deepen Ukrainian engagement with the country's western neighbors, while exacerbating tensions with Russia. Moscow has vehemently opposed Ukraine's economic integration with the EU, and has pressured it to join a trade bloc known as the Customs Union with other former Soviet countries.

Experts say the EU association agreement could pay dividends for Ukraine over the long term -- both economically and politically -- but warn that Kiev may lack the political resolve to implement the reforms that would make such a partnership fruitful.

The deal, which requires Ukraine to adopt a number of EU governance and trade standards, could encourage "more rule of law and move Ukraine slowly but steadily into the European fold," says Georg Zachmann, a research fellow at the Bruegel think tank. Or, Zachmann says, once the deal is attained, Ukraine could ultimately "lose its motivation" to implement painful political and economic adjustments.