Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06KYIV4063
2006-10-20 16:39:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Kyiv
Cable title:  

UKRAINE: PREPARATIONS ON TRACK FOR EU SUMMIT

Tags:  PREL ECIN ETRD CVIS EUN UP 
pdf how-to read a cable
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ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 201639Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY KYIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0127
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHZG/NATO EU COLLECTIVE
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KYIV 004063 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT ALSO FOR EUR/UMB AND EUR/ERA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/20/2016
TAGS: PREL ECIN ETRD CVIS EUN UP
SUBJECT: UKRAINE: PREPARATIONS ON TRACK FOR EU SUMMIT

REF: KIEV 3569

Classified By: Political Counselor Kent Logsdon for reasons 1.4(b,d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KYIV 004063

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT ALSO FOR EUR/UMB AND EUR/ERA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/20/2016
TAGS: PREL ECIN ETRD CVIS EUN UP
SUBJECT: UKRAINE: PREPARATIONS ON TRACK FOR EU SUMMIT

REF: KIEV 3569

Classified By: Political Counselor Kent Logsdon for reasons 1.4(b,d)


1. (C) Summary: With just a week to go, the EU and Ukraine
are still working to finalize a key document to be initialed
at the October 27 Ukraine-EU summit in Helsinki -- a visa
facilitation agreement and an associated readmission
agreement. Ukrainians are insisting that the provisions of
the readmission agreement be suspended for a three-year
transitional period; the EU is insisting on two years. With
the long process of government formation after the March
parliamentary elections, the EU and Ukrainian MFA did not
have the normal lead-time to prepare for the summit. In
addition to the visa facilitation and readmission agreements,
the EU and Ukraine will note completion of a memorandum of
cooperation on agriculture and agreements supplementary to
the Ukraine-EU memorandum on energy signed at the 2005
summit. In another sign of governmental discord, the
Ukrainian MFA has still not provided the EU presidency of
Finland's embassy with its delegation list. During his
October 19 visit to Kyiv, EU High Representative Solana
stressed the importance of WTO accession as a key step toward
establishment of a Ukraine-EU free trade agreement. End
summary.

Schedule and Delegation
--------------


2. (C) Finnish Embassy 2nd Secretary Jukka Pajarinen provided
an update during an October 20 meeting on preparations for
the October 27 Ukraine-EU summit to take place in Helsinki.
President Yushchenko would arrive in Helsinki on the evening
of October 25, make a bilateral visit October 26, and then
the summit with the EU would take place October 27 as a
two-hour meeting, followed by lunch and a press conference.
Yushchenko and his delegation would return to Ukraine the
same evening. Pajarinen noted the Ukrainian government had
yet to provide the delegation list, but it should include
representation from the Ministry of Economy, probably the
Minister, and the Minister of Health, who would take part in

a health-related meeting that would take place in Helsinki
along with the summit meeting. Pajarinen opined the
delegation might not apply to the Finnish Embassy for visas
until the morning of the very day that the delegation would
depart.

Sticking Points
--------------


3. (C) At an October 18 lunch, Ukrainian DFM Andriy
Veselovskiy pleaded with EU Special Representative for
Moldova Adriaan Jakobovitz de Szeged for EU flexibility and
agreement on issuing a joint communique after the summit. He
said such communiques were a useful listing of
accomplishments between Ukraine and EU over the past 12
months; communiques had been issued after summits for a
decade, and the absence of a communique would be interpreted
as a downgrading of the relationship. Prime Minister
Yanukovych had made two trips to Brussels in a short space of
time, and the Ukrainian government needed to demonstrate that
his special effort had been productive. Veselovskiy said he
was particularly concerned at how the Russian media would
distort the change in procedure.


4. (SBU) EU Secretariat staffer Annika Weidemann, also in the
conversation, pointed out to Veselovskiy that the EU was
increasingly moving away from joint communiques and, in fact,
had stopped the practice after EU-Russia meetings several
iterations ago. She rejoined that the Ukrainian government
could play the absence of a communique as a move that brought
Ukraine on a parity with Russia. Pajarinen said later that
both sides are working on a text, with a decision to be made
on whether the text would be a "communique" or a press
release.


5. (C) Veselovskiy also offhandedly noted the readmission
agreement, which is part of a package that includes a visa
facilitation agreement (see reftel),was nearly completed and
included a suspension of the agreement's provisions for a
two-year period. He mildly remarked that the transition
period was less than the three years given the Russians.
Pajarinen said the Ukrainians were still continuing to insist
on a three-year transitional period, arguing that the similar
Ukraine-Russia agreement was not going to enter into force
for three years. If the Ukraine-EU agreement were to become
effective earlier, Ukraine would not be able to repatriate
illegals to Russia that had transited Ukraine into the EU.


6. (C) Pajarinen said, if the Ukrainians did not agree to two

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years, the agreement would probably not be initialed in
Helsinki. The EU was arguing that, since the Russia
readmission agreement had been signed earlier, the Russian
and Ukrainian agreements were likely to become effective at
about the same time. A second three-year transition period
would set a bad precedent for ongoing EU discussion with
Balkan countries and Pakistan. Pajarinen said the EU
position was that the visa facilitation provisions were more
favorable to Ukraine than the equivalent Russian agreement,
so the total package was better for Ukraine. The EU was
prepared to provide the 170 million euros that Ukraine said
would be necessary to prepare additional detention facilities
and upgrade border controls, but this sum would be taken out
of the existing assistance pot for Ukraine.

Solana's Visit
--------------


7. (C) Pajarinen said EU High Representative for the Common
Security and Foreign Policy Javier Solana's October 19 visit
to Kyiv had touched only tangentially on the upcoming summit.
Solana met with newly appointed NSDC Secretary Vitaly
Haiduk, of whom he formed a good impression, had a meeting
and lunch with PM Yanukovych, met with opposition politician
Yuliya Tymoshenko, received a Ukrainian government award, and
then dined privately with President Yushchenko. He left
early on October 20.


8. (C) Solana reported to EU ambassadors that he had a frank
discussion with Yanukovych, who Solana thought was working
earnestly to improve Ukraine's economic conditions. Solana
had emphasized the importance of Ukraine's joining WTO, a
prerequisite to any discussion of establishing a Ukraine-EU
free trade agreement. Yanukovych had responded he hoped to
obtain passage of WTO-related legislation by the end of
November with the hope of joining WTO by March 2007. In
general, Solana had the impression that Ukraine needed
greater political stability and less influence of business
interests in forming government policy.


9. (C) According to Pajarinen, during his meeting with
Yanukovych, Solana had stressed the importance of getting an
agreement on visa facilitation and readmissions, since the
package would be the only tangible deliverable for the
summit. In an interview with the weekly, English-language
Kyiv Post, EC Representative to Ukraine Ian Boag also noted
preparation of a memorandum of cooperation in agriculture,
which would fill in an area not addressed in the Ukraine-EU
Action Plan, and a follow-up to the memorandum of
understanding on energy. Pajarinen told us the memorandum on
agriculture had been signed earlier during the week of
October 16 in Brussels, which fact would be noted at the
summit.


10. (U) Visit Embassy Kyiv's classified website:
www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/kiev.
Taylor