"The Eastern Partnership Summit between EU and Eastern European leaders starts Thursday in Vilnius in the shadow of Ukraine’s decision to scrap a key trade deal with the EU following pressure from Moscow.
Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych has nonetheless said that he will attend the meeting. “Yanukovych said that he wanted to come and explain himself to his European counterparts, but the real reason is that the negotiations here in Vilnius are still going on right up until the last minute,” said FRANCE 24’s Gulliver Cragg in the Lithuanian capital.
While the Ukrainian government has admitted to pulling out of the deal with the EU after pressure from Russia, diplomats were still discussing possible concessions on Wednesday. On the fourth day of mass pro-European street protests in Kiev, the Ukrainian prime minister said his government still wanted to strike an agreement with the EU.
“The document is physically on the table here in Vilnius,” Cragg said. “But Yanukovych’s main purpose here will be to convince the EU to have three-way talks with Russia.” He added that European officials were divided on the prospect of negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government over their competing spheres of influence in Eastern Europe.
From Moscow, Guardian correspondent Shaun Walker told FRANCE 24 that a deal with Ukraine was unlikely this week but that this may be only a temporary delay. “Eventually they do want European integration, but it’s just not the right economic decision for them right now,” he said. Ukraine is heavily dependent on Russia for trade and energy supplies, and the EU’s offer appears to have been insufficient to counter Moscow’s threats of commercial retaliation.
Although Ukraine is the largest and most visible of the six countries engaged in the much-lauded EU Eastern partnership, Walker said it was not the first time Europe’s efforts to develop ties in the region have been thwarted by Russia.
“Armenia was another country – all the paperwork was ready to sign on the dotted line. A couple of months ago Vladimir Putin travelled there and the next day, Armenia announced it wasn’t joining this EU partnership – that it was in fact joining Russia’s EU-style Customs Union,” he said.
Walker and Cragg both argue that the European Union’s image and diplomatic clout have suffered in the Ukrainian rapprochement fiasco – at least in the short term. However, two other former members of the Soviet bloc, Georgia and Moldova, are due to sign free trade agreements with the EU in Vilnius. Russia’s deputy prime minister has already warned that it will apply pressure to these countries as well."
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