Corruption, Reform Gaps, and Even a Flap Over Gay Rights Stall Ukraine’s EU Bid

That the flags of Ukraine and the European Union share the same colors is pure coincidence, but shared affinity for blue and yellow will not be enough to accelerate Kyiv’s inclusion in the 27-nation bloc — even though EU leaders were set Thursday to grant Ukraine the candidate status it has long been seeking. This has a lot to do with the slow-turning wheels of the Brussels bureaucracy, but that’s not all.According to the AP, several diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity before a leaders’ summit in Brussels said that Ukraine will receive the unanimous approval required for candidate status and the launch of eligibility negotiations. The Euromaidan protests of 2013 and 2014 were set off largely by Ukraine’s desire to move closer to Western Europe, but it was only in February — days after the Russian invasion — when Ukraine submitted its formal request to join the EU. If the Kremlin’s brutality has wound up the diplomatic dance between Brussels and Kyiv — and even if Ukraine’s eventual joining is far less likely to anger Moscow than would a move toward the NATO military alliance — domestic issues in Ukraine may keep the accession process at a turtle’s pace.Ukraine, along with Bulgaria, was largely seen as eastern Europe’s poster child for corruption before the Russian invasion knocked to the backburner stories that shored up that characterization. The European Commission has noted that Ukraine needs to “continue ambitious structural economic reforms” and, according to the Kyiv Independent, has said that it “must defend the process of its reforms across all sections of government, including its judiciary, which was once deemed so corrupt that Ukraine lost out on millions in international grants.” That newspaper, one of the most objective in Ukraine today, also reported that “digitized public procurement has not stopped the dodgy takeover of government assets and Transparency International still ranks Ukraine the most corrupt country in Europe after Russia.” According to Radio Free Europe, both Denmark and the Netherlands earlier this month raised objections to Ukraine’s candidate status, warning that “Ukraine does not sufficiently fulfill criteria related to the stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and respect for and protection of minorities.”Greece and Cyprus, both EU members, also reportedly opposed the fast-tracking of Ukraine’s EU application. Prior to today’s meeting at Brussels, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister, Olha Stefanishyna, remarked: “None of the 27 would say right in the face of the president ‘no,’ but what is happening behind the scenes is clear willingness to put obstacles into the process.”In addition, despite being the breadbasket of Europe and being home to considerable heavy industry, the destruction wrought by the Russian invasion threatens to keep vast chunks of the country impoverished for the foreseeable future. If Ukraine succeeds in its application, the Kyiv Independent reported, the country would be the poorest in the EU by far: “At most, the GDP per capita in Ukraine would be $4,872. Currently, the poorest EU country, Bulgaria, has more than double the GDP per capita at $11,683,” the paper said. Also worth noting is that Montenegro applied for EU membership in 2008. It is still not a member.There are other, less obvious impediments to Ukraine’s joining the bloc in the near future. Joining the European Union also means being fully and legally on board with the EU’s acquis communautaire, the body of common laws, rights, and obligations that bind all the member states together within the bloc. Those include directives on gender equality and non-discrimination. Just this week, the Ukrainian parliament passed a bill ratifying the Istanbul Convention, a significant human rights treaty on preventing and combating violence against women. As the Spectator reported, though, “this has triggered much debate on Ukrainian social media with some seeing it as a back door for gay marriage.”While President Zelensky is widely seen as socially liberal, the Spectator reported that some lawmakers from his Servant of the People party have sought to pass a law outlawing “homosexual and transgenderism propaganda.” This week one of Mr. Zelensky’s closest advisors, Oleksiy Arestovych, said that “LGBT people are people with disabilities” and that though he “sympathizes with them” he is against gay “propaganda.” The homophobic statements have prompted some calls within Ukraine to fire Mr. Arestovych, who has since taken to social media to double down on his assessment of the LGBT community. Under normal circumstances that might be a purely domestic Ukrainian matter. But what the EU is lacking in military might it likes to think of itself as making up for with readiness to take the moral high ground. Last year EU leaders urged legal action against a Hungarian law that banned the depiction of homosexuality to under-18s, saying that the law breached “EU values, principles, and law.”While there is no hard indicator that Kyiv is on the brink of tabling similar legislation, it won’t be a yellow-brick road to Brussels. The Spectator also reported that a poll in May showed just 24 percent of Ukrainians support same-sex marriage, calling that “one of the arguments against EU membership: that it would enforce social norms not accepted by the majority.”

Corruption, Reform Gaps, and Even a Flap Over Gay Rights Stall Ukraine’s EU Bid

Corruption, Reform Gaps, and Even a Flap Over Gay Rights Stall Ukraine’s EU Bid

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