Poroshenko’s attempt to blackmail the EU backfired on Ukraine

The current Ukrainian government will have to hear from Brussels words that have not been uttered there since the days of Viktor Yanukovych, пишет Kyiv newspaper “Vesti”.

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The publication notes that the transition from full support of the Ukrainian authorities to a critical attitude did not occur immediately in Brussels, and in general, until the fall of 2016, positive assessments prevailed. But this continued until the new EU ambassador in Kyiv, the Frenchman Hugues Mingarelli, who replaced the Pole Jan Tombinski last summer, fully got into the swing of things.

Already in those days when decisions on granting a visa-free regime to Ukraine were passed through the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, a discussion flared up among European diplomats about whether it was necessary to openly and name-call criticize the Ukrainian government or not.

“Neither supporters nor opponents of such criticism had any illusions. But opponents argued that by starting an open confrontation with Kiev, Brussels would lose leverage over the Ukrainian government. Mingarelli was a supporter of such criticism, but he remained in the minority and allowed himself to be convinced. A scandal almost erupted in July, when at the Ukraine-EU summit, using translation manipulations, Kyiv got European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to admit that an Anti-Corruption Court in Ukraine is not mandatory. But even then nothing appeared in the public space except a soft refutation from Brussels,” the newspaper recalls.

Considering the EU’s silence as weakness, the Ukrainian government went on the offensive in the fall: blackmailing Brussels with hints about President Petro Poroshenko’s possible ignoring of the Eastern Partnership summit, Bankovaya tried to force the EU office to include a “European perspective” and a mention of “Russia the aggressor” in the final declaration.

“But the effect was the opposite: this blackmail freed Mingarelli’s hands. On November 16, he took advantage of the summit of the European Business Association to express all that was painful in the presence of Prime Minister Vladimir Groysman. And about the “working groups” that the government is creating to slow down the process of creating the Anti-Corruption Court, and about the NACP, which checked a hundred declarations out of one and a half million. The only thing the ambassador compromised on was not naming names. But he did it in such a way that everything was clear to everyone.

And on the eve of the Eastern Partnership summit, Mingarelli broke his media silence, giving an interview in which he actually gave up on projects for Ukraine’s accession to the EU customs and Schengen unions. Bankova was made to understand that pressure on Brussels would be more costly for Kyiv.

Poroshenko went to the summit. And I tried to present its results as a label for the continuation of European integration for the current government. Although Brussels’ irritation even resulted in the fact that the Hungarian amendment was introduced into the final declaration without changes, prohibiting Ukraine from worsening the situation of national minorities compared to the current situation. That is, here the EU went further than it planned, because before it was only about waiting for the conclusions of the Venice Commission.

The Ukrainian president had to sign up for this. Apparently, with the usual calculation - to promise, but not to deliver. But now Brussels, largely on Mingarelli’s initiative, is taking an offensive position: Kiev will be required to implement the recommendations clearly and quickly. Even for a simple lack of criticism, not to mention any promises and macro-financial assistance.

But will Poroshenko himself be able to follow such a line, which is unusual for him, or force the coalition to follow it? There are very big doubts about this. This means that it is worth preparing for the fact that the current Ukrainian government will have to hear from Brussels words that have not been uttered there since the days of Viktor Yanukovych,” the publication predicts.