Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-10-27-Speech-3-133"
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"en.20041027.9.3-133"2
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".
Mr President, Ukraine occupies a central position in the EU’s Neighbourhood Policy on account of its location – between the European Union and Russia – its size and its historical link with our part of Europe.
Democratisation in Ukraine is one of the greatest challenges for the Neighbourhood Policy, which aims to build up relations with the countries surrounding the European Union. Needless to say, the developments in Ukraine are also an important indicator of that Policy’s success. The presidential elections on 31 October and the second round a few weeks after that play a central role in those developments. In simplified terms, the choice is between the present course of a semi-democratic regime on the one hand and the European course of the democratic opposition on the other. The government, President Kuchma, with the oligarchs supporting him behind the scenes, and the Russian President Putin who yesterday started a visit to the Ukraine lasting several days, support their own candidate, Prime Minister Yanukovych. Despite a number of official reforms, the latter does not have a good reputation as regards freedom of the press, freedom of opinion and the guaranteeing of an open and fair democratic process. In the run-up to the elections, countless incidents have been reported, including, as the most striking of all, the mysterious illness of the most important opposition candidate, Mr Yushchenko. We have grave concerns about this. Nevertheless, as Commissioner Verheugen already stated, we welcome the fact that there is a true election battle being fought in that country, and we also hope that those campaigns persist.
Despite this, it remains to be seen whether the elections will receive the full approval of the international observers, our own and that of the OSCE. I endorse Commissioner Verheugen’s appeal to those observers, urging them to take their weighty responsibilities very seriously indeed. After all, the declarations that are made at the end of such an election often have a significant impact on relations between the European Union and the relevant country. We would therefore urge the Ukrainian authorities, in the last days before the first round of those presidential elections, to ensure that all candidates have equal access to the media, to repair what damage can be repaired and to commit to a fair campaign in the second round – which will, of course, be the most important – so that the Ukrainian population can make up their own minds.
Ukraine has expressed a desire for still closer cooperation with the European institutions, and for stronger relations with the European Union. The ties with the European Union can be strengthened only if Ukraine demonstrates that it takes its own democracy seriously, because a disruption in the democratic process in those elections could greatly encumber relations between the European Union and Ukraine."@en1
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