Ukraine: towards closer ties with Europe
Bordering Russia and the EU, Ukraine has wavered for a long time between closer ties with the east or the west. With the free trade component of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement entering into force on 1 January 2016, the country took a significant step on its long road to European integration. However two years after the Euromaidan revolution, Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of fighting in eastern Ukraine, the country’s 45 million people still face an uncertain future.
Our timeline tracks the main events of the past two years, from the annexation of Crimea to the Minsk II peace agreement and more.
All the latest news from the Press Service of the European Parliament: votes, resolutions, debates, parliamentary…www.europarl.europa.eu
The European Parliament has played a key role in promoting reforms in Ukraine by regularly debating the situation in the country, inviting Ukrainian politicians to speak and approving the EU-UK Association Agreement on 16 September 2014.
A delegation from the European Parliament also observed elections in Ukraine in October 2014 to ensure they were conducted in line with international standards.
MEPs have also regularly visited the country to take stock of the situation, such as for example Parliament President Martin Schulz in September 2014. “The EU is in to support Ukraine for the long-run,” he said while in Kiev. “The European Parliament stands by your side in this difficult time. As we have done in the past.”
On 29 February-2 March the Parliament organised Ukraine Week, a conference on good parliamentary practice and law-making, which was attended by a 40-strong delegation of Ukrainian parliamentarians.
Ukraine Week opened with the presentation of a report on capacity building by former EP President Pat Cox.
“There is still an enormous appetite for deeper transformation in Ukraine”
In an interview published on the Parliament website, Cox said: “If you take the volume of legislation and reform the two years since Yanukovych’s departure were ones of unprecedented change. Judged by the two decades since Ukrainian independence an impressive amount has been achieved. Judged by the objectives set out by the citizens of Ukraine in the sacrifices they made on the Maidan, there is still an enormous, unaddressed appetite for deeper transformation.”
