UKRAINE: EU TROIKA MEETING LAUNCHES ENHANCED

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KYIV 000332

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/07/2017
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM UP
SUBJECT: UKRAINE: EU TROIKA MEETING LAUNCHES ENHANCED
AGREEMENT

Classified By: Ambassador for reasons 1.4 (B) and (D)


1. (C) Summary: A February 6 EU Troika meeting in Kyiv marked
the launch of a new enhanced Partnership and Cooperative
Agreement intended to strengthen economic and political ties
- responding to a Ukrainian push for a new kind of
partnership and closer ties to the EU. The first meeting of
a Working Group to hammer out the agreement, to be led on the
Ukrainian side by DFM Andriy Veselovskiy, was set for March

6. A key feature of the new agreement will be a free trade
zone and it is also expected to cover energy, economy,
security, but not EU membership. However, EU officials
publicly and privately indicated that they are not ready to
initiate substantive talks and the economic portion of the
agreement would be tied to Ukraine first joining the WTO.
Local foreign policy experts were satisfied with the results
of the talks, but raised some concerns about the details of
the new agreement and the absence of EU foreign policy chief
Solana from the meeting.


2. (C) Comment: The success of the meeting, and the
positive statements from both PM Yanukovych and President
Yushchenko, demonstrated that in spite of their
disagreements, the Ukrainian Government continues to have a
unified approach on the importance of moving ahead on
European integration and forging closer ties with the EU.
Speaking after the meeting during a visit to Germany,
Yushchenko predicted Ukrainian membership in the EU in ten
years. This is a positive step toward our main foreign
policy goal for Ukraine: integrate Ukraine into Europe. End
Comment and Summary.

Making the rounds in Kyiv
--------------


3. (C) The EU Troika delegation, led by German Foreign
Minister Steinmeier, met with President Yushchenko, Prime
Minister Yanukovych, and acting Foreign Minister Ohryzko.
Notably absent from the meeting was EU Foreign Policy Chief
Javier Solana, who canceled at the last minute citing
pressing concerns over Kosovo. However, the Germany Embassy
here cautioned us from reading too much into Solana's
reluctance to make the trip to Kyiv, even though he was in
Moscow just before the Troika meeting, because he is
scheduled to return here to receive an award in mid-March.
Also absent was Benita Ferrero-Waldner, European Commissioner
for External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy, due
to medical reasons.


4. (C) According to our Germany Embassy colleagues, FM
Steinmeier insisted that the meeting go ahead with or without
Solana and Ferrero-Waldner. In Steinmeier's view, it was
important to hold the meeting here in Kyiv to announce the
opening of discussions on an enhanced relationship, rather
than allowing the announcement to be made as one of many in
some kind of protocol issued in Brussels. The visit also
took place in spite of reported fussing in Brussels over the
lack of a confirmed Foreign Minister and a last-minute
attempt by departing FM Tarasyuk to postpone the meeting.
According to the Germans Embassy here, Yushchenko was furious
when he heard that Tarasyuk, in the person of DFM
Veselovskiy, contacted the Germans at the 11th hour to
postpone the meeting. Within hours, Presidential Secretariat
Deputy Head Oleksandr Chaliy was on the phone with the German
Ambassador overturning the MFA instruction to postpone.

What Will Ukraine Get from the Agreement?
--------------


5. (SBU) Press statements issued after the visit described
the talks in positive terms, with Steinmeier calling it a
"good day for relations between the EU and Ukraine". The two
sides were optimistic that the new agreement would strengthen
economic ties through the free trade area and lead to
increased cooperation in judicial, foreign and security
policy areas. However, the current EU position is that a new
agreement should not include explicit prospects for EU
membership. A meeting of technical experts is scheduled for
March 6 in Kyiv, to be led by DFM Veselovskiy.


6. (C) Luis Manuel Portero Sanchez, Head of the European
Commission Delegation's Trade and Economic Section, told
Econoff February 7 that the troika meeting met the
Commission's expectations. He noted that there had been
political pressure behind the push to formally announce a
start to negotiations on a new agreement, however, and that
substantive discussions could in fact not take place
immediately. He reiterated that virtually all economic
elements of the enhanced agreement, especially an EU-Ukraine
Free Trade Agreement (FTA),would be dependent on Ukraine
first joining the WTO.

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7. (C) Think tanker Oleksander Sushko told PolOff that the
troika meeting met his expectations. Leading foreign policy
expert, Oleksiy Haran, also viewed the outcome with measured
approval, but did note some concerns - namely the eventual
shape of the new agreement, which does not include prospects
for eventual EU membership. He said that while the EU may be
frustrated with the current turmoil in internal Ukrainian
politics, membership talks could be held without tying it to
the current situation because Ukraine's prospects for EU
membership are projected far into the future.

All Politics are Local...
--------------


8. (C) Haran also brought up the absence of Solana,
worrying that this could be perceived as a slight from the EU
and be used by some politicians to push for a less
pro-European foreign policy. Haran raised another sticking
point. He thought that some members of the majority
coalition in the Rada have argued that the meeting did not go
well, and Acting FM Ohryzko, President Yushchenko's nominee
for the post, did not plan the meeting well. Haran surmised
that they could use this as an excuse not to vote for him to
be the next Foreign Minister.


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