NEW NATO/EU COORDINATION BUREAU FINDING ITS ROLE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KYIV 000429

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/06/2019
TAGS: NATO PGOV PREL UP
SUBJECT: NEW NATO/EU COORDINATION BUREAU FINDING ITS ROLE

Classified By: Political Counselor Colin Cleary for reasons 1.4 (b) and
(d).

Summary
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1. (C) Vadym Triukhan, Director of the newly formed
Coordination Bureau for European and Euro-Atlantic
Integration within the Cabinet of Ministers, recently
outlined for Embassy his vision of the group's role in the
existing network of often overlapping NATO/EU-focused
inter-governmental coordinating bodies. The Bureau consists
of two EU and one NATO-focused units and reports directly to
Deputy Prime Minister Nemyria, who was charged in March 2008
by Presidential Decree with coordinating all NATO/EU issues.
A draft Presidential decree providing the Bureau with the
authority to coordinate the drafting of Ukraine's NATO Annual
National Program (ANP) was recently pulled back for revision,
leaving the competencies of the Bureau unclear. The MFA's
NATO and EU Directorates are guarding their primacy in the
foreign policy arena, while hoping the Bureau will take on
many of the domestic coordination responsibilities required
by Ukraine's dual drive for NATO and EU membership. End
Summary.

New Group in Town
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2. (SBU) Vadym Triukhan, Director of the Cabinet of
Minister's Coordination Bureau for European and Euro-Atlantic
Integration, on March 4 provided PolCouns with an overview of
the structure and potential responsibilities of his group.
The Coordination Bureau was officially launched on July 16 by
a Cabinet Resolution and is intended to support Deputy Prime
Minister Hryhorhiy Nemyria in his role as Coordinator for all
Euro/Euro-Atlantic integration issues within the government.
Nemyria was initially tasked with this role by President
Yushchenko in a March 8 decree, but continued delays in
confirming the scope and competencies of his role pushed back
the formation of the Coordination Bureau. The Bureau staffed
up over the Fall and began to participate in meetings
beginning in January 2009.


3. (SBU) Triukhan noted that he currently has 40 STAFF and
hopes to fill 10 additional slots if the 2009 budget
amendments anticipated for this Spring provide funding. He
noted that the economic downturn in Ukraine had made it
easier for him to recruit qualified staff. The Bureau has
two sections dedicated to EU issues -- one responsible for
Strategic Planning (free trade area, sectoral cooperation,
Council of Europe),and another responsible for Monitoring
(compliance with Ukrainian-EU agreements, training of
Ministry personnel on EU integration issues.) A third
section is responsible for Euro-Atlantic (NATO) issues and
includes policy coordination, public outreach and legal
cooperation units. The NATO unit currently has 11 STAFF and
hopes to fill an additional five slots.

Substantive Focus
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4. (C) Triukhan viewed work on the EU Association Agreement
as a key for the Bureau, adding that President Yushchenko's
repeated public calls for completing an Association Agreement
by the end of 2009 were unrealistic and counterproductive.
The EU's Eastern Partnership (EP) was another focus, with the
Bureau intending to organize a May 27-28 Conference in Kyiv
to follow up on the May 7 EP Summit. Triukhan added that the
domestic political crisis has not been helpful in moving
forward with key negotiations with the EU -- including on
visas, aviation, and energy. He noted that the EU had wanted
to complete an aviation agreement in March, but that Ukraine
saw the talks as one-sided with the EU pushing on access
without providing counterbalancing concessions on technical
assistance and industrial cooperation.

MFA sees Bureau as Resource and Potential Competitor
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5. (C) The adoption at the December 2008 NATO Ministerial of
a Annual NATIONAL Program (ANP) to replace the Annual Target
Plan (ATP) for Ukraine created an enhanced drafting and
coordination requirement for the GOU. The MFA NATO
Directorate, which to date had somewhat unwillingly taken the
lead role in coordinating and drafting previous ATPs, sees
the new Bureau as a natural coordinator for the ANP. MFA
NATO Deputy DG Vadym Prystaiko on March 5 told us that his
Ministry had sent a draft Presidential Decree to the
Presidential Secretariat which would have tasked and
empowered the Coordination Bureau with coordinating and
preparing the ANP. The MFA had always seen as onerous the
responsibility of collating and drafting ATPs drawn from

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inputs from 15 domestic Ministries and agencies. The
Presidential Secretariat returned the draft decree requesting
more specificity regarding scope and procedures.


6. (C) Given the often glacial nature of preparing and
passing Presidential Decrees this indicates that the MFA will
retain the lead on the ANP for the foreseeable future.
Prystaiko added that it will in any event take a long time
for the Coordination Bureau STAFF to gain familiarity with
the complex and politically sensitive process of
inter-governmental coordination within the split-executive of
Ukraine. He lamented that only two of the members of
Truikhan's NATO team had prior experience in foreign or
security policy.


7. (C) In contrast to Prystaiko's focus on what tasks could
be transferred from the MFA to the Coordination Bureau,
Second Territorial Directorate Deputy DG Andrii Kuzmenko, who
has the lead on EU issues, focused on the potential for
competition with Triukhan's group. During a March 5 meeting
Kuzmenko noted that any attempt by the Bureau to become more
involved in the negotiations with the European Commission
regarding the EU Association Agreement or Eastern Partnership
talks would be rebuffed. Regarding the May 27-28 EP
Conference the Bureau was intending to organize, Kuzmenko
noted that the MFA had been informed and was "evaluating
whether to participate." Kuzmenko emphasized that the
Bureau's competencies were limited to domestic activities,
such as insuring compliance with international commitments.

Dip Community Still Evaluating Bureau
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8. (C) Colleagues in the UK and German Embassies told us that
they were increasingly reaching out to Triukhan's Bureau to
gauge whether it could deliver and be an effective
intermediary. German First Secretary Meyer noted especially
the increasing frustration within the German Mission with the
MFA and its increased requirement for notes verbale for all
requests -- the Germans were relying more and more on DPM
Nemyria and his STAFF (which now included the Bureau) to
intercede on a wide range of issues (GOU views on bilat
relations with Germany to be reported septel.) That said,
both the UK and Germans agreed that Triukhan's group would
suffer from the increasingly sharp exchanges over control of
foreign policy that were taking place between the Yushchenko
controlled MFA and the Cabinet of Minister's apparatus.

Comment
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9. (C) In theory a 40-strong coordinating cell in the Cabinet
should enhance the GOU's ability to meet its commitments
within the NATO/EU frameworks. Its effectiveness will depend
on how quickly its personnel can familiarize themselves with
the existing plethora of coordination mechanisms and find
their niche. The absence for the foreseeable future of a
decree clarify authorities and responsibilities means that
Triukhan's Bureau will have to develop sharp elbows. We will
continue to engage with the Bureau with the hope that it will
ultimately be able to help streamline the GOU coordination
process.


TAYLOR