Ukraine’s new EU ambassador welcomes French overtures

New Ukrainian ambassador to the EU Andri Veselovsky has said French efforts to improve relations with his country are “timely” given the “difficult stage of development” Europe is at.

“There is coherence in French institutions about the necessity to make an opening for Ukraine,” he told journalists in Brussels on Thursday. “The French vision is very timely and the right one, and an ambitious one. I think that France is not doing it for charity. It thinks about the future of Europe.

“There is a very difficult stage of development in the EU and the Lisbon treaty is not yet in your pocket.

“We wait and we watch this presidency with interest and impatience.”

France, which will hold the rotating presidency of the EU from July, started its preparations for the role “quite early”, said the Ukrainian diplomat, and involved his country in its programme from the start.

Ukraine’s relations with the EU are currently based on the European neighbourhood policy (ENP), but the country is negotiating a more ambitious enhanced agreement, including a free trade zone, with the 27-member bloc.

“The ENP was launched in 2004 without asking Ukraine whether it suits us or not,” Veselovsky said. “Ukraine is very vocal because it has progressed better [than other ENP countries] and our relations with the EU have a clear EU strategy and European vocation.”

Commenting on proposals aired by Poland and Sweden on Monday to form a sort of ‘eastern partnership’ to rival the EU's ‘Barcelona process: union for the Mediterranean’, Veselovsky said that it was a good first step, but should more heavily involve Ukrainian interests.

“It is a first step. We like this step and we support it. But the involvement of Ukrainian diplomats should be envisaged. If you deal with a big country you need to hear the voices of the representatives of that country.

“I don’t think we need to see this as rivalry between one part of the EU and another.”

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