Whos and whys of EU Association Agreement policy

e Agreement emphasizes the importance of the United Nations Charter principles, in particular the observance of human rights, democratic principles; while economic freedom and respect for human rights and democratic principles constitute the document’s essential element. I’m talking about the Association Agreement (AA) signed between the EU and Egypt in 2001 under Hosni Mubarak ― a former Egyptian dictator who ruled the country for almost 30 years.

President Mubarak was re-elected in referendums of 1987, 1993, and 1999 ― the vote and their results were highly controversial. The EU has also “established close economic and political cooperation” with Morocco (in 1996, under Hassan II); and Tunisia (in 1995, under Zine El Abidine Ben Ali)… But not with Ukraine, for instance. So how does the European Union evaluate the levels of democracy and observance of human rights? And how does the EU choose its “privileged relationship” partners? It certainly looks like “fair, transparent and democratic” elections are not the top criteria.

AA is an international agreement that the European Union concludes with non-EU countries with intention to create wide-ranging framework for bilateral relations. Agreements of the sort may not be necessarily called “Association Agreements” and usually carry a different set of conditions; in some cases they are prerequisites for future EU membership, while others merely stipulate free trade area or customs union. Most of the EU AAs either focus on sectorial cooperation (such as the EU-Switzerland agreement) or on establishing free-trade areas between the parties (like EU-Israel agreement).

Nonetheless, all such pacts provisioned by the European Community Treaty offer “Most Favored Nation treatment.” Another part the AAs have had in common for almost 20 years is the clause on the respect of human rights and democratic principles and the principles of the United Nations Charter and international law (Treaty of Lisbon). Thus, the third country should share these values of the EU and not merely have a will to simplify bilateral trade procedures. Specifically due to this legal provision AAs are widely perceived as tools for further “democratization” of young democracies. And it also brings us back to the issue of occasional compromising on such crucial principle as opposed to overstating it in other cases.

Interestingly, being one of the most recognized formulas of conducting EU’s foreign policy, AA can only be concluded upon unanimous vote by the Council of Europe and with the consent of the European Parliament. This way, any of the 27 member-states or even the European Parliament majority may put the prospect of an agreement with a certain third country in a deadlock.

Thus, Turkey signed a Customs Union agreement with the EU in 1995 and has been a candidate country for EU membership for 13 years. The Ankara Association Agreement was signed in 1963, marking the beginning of a long association with the project of European integration. Accession negotiations started in 2005, and on Feb. 18 2008 a revised Accession Partnership was adopted. Since then the accession negotiations have been stalled by a number of Turkey’s domestic and foreign issues (such as conflict with Greece) while both Austria and France said they would hold a referendum on Turkey’s possible membership. To this point even the visa requirements for Turkey have not been abolished. So here’s an example of what the difference of opinion within the EU may lead to.

Surprisingly, in the case of 2001 EU-Egypt AA none of the 27 European countries or the European Parliament found any discrepancy between the rule of Hosni Mubarak and cherished European values. Neither Mubarak’s asserted involvement in the assassination of Egypt’s President Sadat in 1981 nor Mubarak’s subsequent expansion of the security service and anti-riot and containment force seemed to contradict the EU’s democratic principles at the time of signing and the following ratification of the AA (2004).

On the other hand, the EU started negotiations on signing the Association Agreement with Eastern European Ukraine back in 2007; consultations on creating a free trade zone followed in 2008. Since then the negotiations were halted due to the imprisonment of Ukraine’s odious ex-prime minister and alleged falsifications at the recent parliamentary elections. Shortly after the vote, “the idea that relatively clean elections would allow Brussels to give a green light to the AA with Kyiv…was in any case hopelessly over-optimistic,” as Andrew Wilson of ECFR wrote in his blog for FT. He raises a good point ― “the EU must clarify what exactly it wants in each area of conditionality, and for European leaders then to sing from the same hymn sheet.”

His thoughts are echoed by Iryna Solonenko and Andreas Umland in their piece for the EU Observer: “Brussels should consider undertaking concrete steps soon to re-intensify EU-Ukraine relations… (It should) set out, in a single and clearly formulated written document, the conditions Ukraine has to fulfill for the AA to be signed.” As of now the instructions Ukraine receives are vaguely outlined by “a cacophony” of European leaders’ statements.

So one may wonder: how could 27 states and the European Parliament unanimously agree to recognize Mubarak’s Egypt and Ben Ali’s Tunisia as states devoted to democratic standards and yet fail to come up with a unified document featuring EU’s list of requirements for Ukraine or come to a consensus over Turkey? International experts agree that a lack of an integrated list of conditions allows Ukrainian authorities to misread the EU’s guidelines or even make it impossible to comply with something as amorphous as “a set of European values for Ukraine” rather than “a set of European values for Egypt.” So maybe before accusing young democracies of “faking” their devotion to democratic principles of equality the “Almighty European Democratizer” should reveal a list of values they consider first-rate as opposed to those a country can simply omit on its way to a better European future. Am I singing to the choir?

The writer is project manager of Worldwide News Ukraine. <The Korea Times/Maryna Khorunzha>