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Experts consider the rollback of democracy in Ukraine to be the hindrance for its free trade with the EU.The videoconference Kyiv-Brussels was organized by the Institute of World Policy together with Carnegie Europe (Brussels).
During the DVC, Mr. Philippe Cuisson, Deputy Head of the European Union Bilateral Relations – Europe (non-EU) & Central Asia, head of the negotiating group of the European Commission on a free trade area with Ukraine, Ina Kirsch, representative of the Policy Department of the Directorate-General for External Policies of the Union at the European Parliament, and Olga Shumylo-Tapiola, visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe in Brussels, told how deep, how close and how expensive the free trade area with the European Union in case of Ukraine.
They consider the democratic rollback to hinder the further development of free trade between the EU and Ukraine.

“EU’s member-states are not so worried about the trade competition with Ukraine. They are worried about the democracy and rule of law in Ukraine”, – Mr. Cuisson stated. Ina Kirsch also claimed that the “Association Agreement with Ukraine is to be the deepest document of such type ever signed by the European Union with the third country. At the moment Ukraine does not correspond to Copenhagen criteria. You should persuade national parliaments, so they realize that they need this agreement”.
Mrs. Kirsch, in particular, underlined that parliaments of France, Germany and Netherlands are the most concerned with democratic values and democracy issues. She added that the ratification of the Association Agreement by member-states will probably take no less than two years.