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Five Ukrainian governmental agencies presented reports to the Institute of World Policy on the efforts, which were put to achieve signing of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and EU at Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius.Specifically, National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine (NSDCU), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the Ministry of Revenue and Duties of Ukraine, the Ministry of Internal Affairs responded to the request.
The representatives of all agencies stressed on the importance of signing the Association Agreement at Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius (November, 28-29th, 2013). In particular, in the letter, addressed to IWP, the First Deputy Secretary of the NSDC Oleksandr Medvedko pointed out that activities, aimed at the integration of Ukraine to the EU, “are being implemented on a full scale according to the established time-frame.” According to Mr. Medvedko, these activities are set in the EU-Ukraine Action Plan 2013, adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

The Minister of Revenue and Duties Oleksandr Klymenko claimed that the sole fact of the establishment of the agency, headed by him, “had demonstrated the willingness to develop the tax policy in the European trend”. According to him, the concentration of functions, related to the administration to the tax and customs payment is “the way that was chosen by many successful countries such as Great Britain, Denmark, Latvia, Canada, Netherlands, and Hungary.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs was not so specific in its letter and sent to the Institute the information bulletin (36-pages long) “On the Way of Ukraine’s Integration to EU”. It is stated in the letter that “the Ministry of Internal Affairs within its competence executes the tasks, determined by the President of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministries of Ukraine associated with the preparation to the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius.

The Ministry of Justice stressed on that “now, most of the activities, determined by the EU-Ukraine Action Plan 2013, are carried out, in particular, the legislative support was granted to the process of internal reforms in spheres of electoral undiscriminating and anticorruption, legislation.” It makes a dissonance with the statement of NSDCU about the implementing of the document “on a full scale.” Specifically, The Ministry of Justice informed about the preparation of the draft law on holding elections in certain one-candidate constituencies; “a range of legislative measures aimed at implementation of new provisions of the Criminal Code of Ukraine”, the measures on protection of personal data, draft legislation on antidiscrimination are executed. The Ministry of Justice also provided the detailed list of anticorruption steps.

The answer of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in which the agency provided the information on the progress of implementing the Füle’s List, is the most fundamental.

The full list could be accessed here

On March 28th, the IWP sent letters to highest ranking officials of the Ukrainian government, where it informed about launch of the IWP advocacy campaign in the support of the European integration as well as explicated the importance of signing the Association Agreement. Moreover, in this letters, the IWP stated the request to inform civil society about the current stage of implementation of the EU recommendations for signing the Association Agreement at the Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius.

The letters were sent to the President of Ukraine Victor Yanukovych, the Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov, the Secretary of National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine Andriy Klyuyev, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Leonid Kozhara, The Chairman of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Volodymyr Rybak, the Minister of Justice of Ukraine Oleksandr Lavrynovych and other representatives of the Ukrainian government.
In addition, the IWP sent the Ukrainian authorities the “Vilnius calendar” that shows amount of time left to the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius, where the Association Agreement is probably could be signed. In this context IWP appealed to the Ukrainian government to report on the steps that had been already taken to implement the recommendation for signing the Association Agreement.

“Vilnius calendar” is one of the components of an advocacy campaign “There is a better side of Europe!” In particular, the initiative of the Institute of World Policy at the central streets of Kyiv city lights placed under the title “Is the best side in Europe!” Under the Institute of World Policy initiative, city lights were placed on the central street of Kyiv under the title “There is a better side of Europe” Four layouts were designed to demonstrate the advantages of integration of Ukraine into the European Union.

This campaign is a part of the project “Soft Power of Ukraine in the European Union” that is implemented under “Ukraine National Initiatives to Enhance Reforms” (UNITER), funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by Pact in Ukraine.