Prime Minister of Ukraine, Julia Tymoshenko, will not fly to Prague to take part in the Eastern Partnership inauguration summit today, joining a long list of heads of governments who will not be attending.
The official reason for the cancellation is the fire that killed nine people in a casino in Dnieproprietrovsk in Ukraine, Wednesday night. The prime minister will visit the scene of the tragedy today.
This is the second time PM Tymoshenko has cancelled a trip to a European Union country almost immediately after having returned from a trip to Moscow. On 30 April, a day after having visited Russia, the Ukrainian PM cancelled her state visit to Poland, giving the official reason that she was needed in parliament to work on pension and budgetary legislation.
Ukraine will be represented by President Viktor Yushchenko at the EU Summit in Prague.
Today’s inaugural Eastern Partnership summit has not received as much support as Poland and Sweden, the two countries which initiated the policy, would like. The Prime Ministers of the UK and Spain, Gordon Brown and Jose Luis Zapatero, will not attend nor will President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Amanda Akcakoca, an analyst from the Brussels-based European Policy Centre, claims that the project is of particular interest to new EU member states and participation by the EU’s established states is needed.
“It is not a good start for this initiative. The fact that the French president does not want to come to Prague is symbolic – and bad. The European Union should show unity and a strong political front should be its priority,” states Akcakoca.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi will attend the summit. Heads of the European Commission and European Parliament, Jose Manuel Barroso and Hans-Gert Pottering will be present in Prague as will Secretary General of the Council of the European Union, Javier Solana.
Poland will be represented by Prime Minister Donald Tusk. President Lech Kaczynski announced earlier this week that he will not fly to Prague so as to avoid conflict with the government over foreign policy.
The main goal of the Eastern Partnership is to create a basis for political dialogue and a trade and security zone between the EU and it’s eastern neighbours, including the Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and, potentially, Belarus.
“The Partnership is meant to support transformation in the target countries – it is meant to support democracy, freedom, civil society, governing processes, administration, and bring these countries closer to European standards,” describes Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski.
“We must summon even more effort to create common stabilization and welfare. That effort will be quickly returned by creating benefits in terms of politics and economics and by creating greater stability and security both within the EU and our eastern partners,” claims Jose Manuel Barroso, head of the European Commission. (mmj/pg)