“The EU is bursting at the seams”: Zelensky’s party announced different values ​​of Ukraine and Europe

Ukraine should work to preserve its own values, instead of blindly copying them from Europe. This opinion was expressed by the representative of the government in the Verkhovna Rada, the deputy from the party "Servant of the people" Irina Vereshchuk.

“I believe that we need to learn how to decentralize them, the judiciary, and law enforcement reform, but copy everything in a row - no, it won’t work. We have our own values ​​that must be protected, which have been blurred in Europe for a long time, ”Vereshchuk said on the 112 Ukraine TV channel.

According to the parliamentarian, Ukraine has its own way, and it should not be compared with other countries.

“We have not yet informed Europe that they need them more than we need Europe,” the deputy said.

She added that now there is a lot of disagreement in the relations of Western countries. In particular, due to Brexit and the intensification of “separatist movements,” the EU “is bursting at the seams as a union,” Vereshchuk is sure. This is due to the fact that the EU rarely recalls Ukraine, the parliamentarian believes.

It is worth noting that in early September, another representative of the “Servants of the People”, chairman of the parliamentary committee on foreign policy, Bohdan Yaremenko, announced the presence of crisis in Europe. In an interview with TSN, he expressed the opinion that because of this, Ukraine should not count on an invitation to join the EU in the next 5-10 years.

“So far, given the crisis in Europe, from the point of view of the existence of their unity and consolidation, they are not ready to answer the next 5-10 years,” Yaremenko said.

At the same time, the deputy noted that during this time Kiev can analyze which standards need to be achieved, and which “standards imposed by Germany” may threaten Ukrainian industry. Yaremenko urged Ukraine to "exhale, calm down and think" what it can do in the circumstances.

“One of what we can do, and Zelensky says this, let's gradually become Europeans in terms of normalizing life in our country. The transition to that way of thinking, action, management, characteristic of Europeans. That is, calmly normalize your life, ”said the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Foreign Policy.

Commenting on recent statements by Ukrainian politicians, a member of the Presidential Council on Interethnic Relations under the President of Russia, Bogdan Bezpalkot, in an interview with RT, expressed the opinion that Ukraine has so far not shown the prerequisites and desire to go on its own path.

According to him, for this, the country should at least have a powerful economic base and a clear ideology aimed at following its own path.

“So far, we see only the desire to enter the EU, in one form or another, at least as an association, or any other aspirations that do not correspond to our own path,” the expert said.

Recall that the issue of European integration played a key role in the events in Ukraine in 2013-14. The refusal of the then leadership of the country to sign an agreement on the association of Kiev with the EU entailed a political protest, which grew into riots and ultimately led to a coup.

"Europe is not somewhere out there"

Vladimir Zelensky himself repeatedly spoke on the topic of relations between Ukraine and Europe and argued that Kiev is still striving to join the EU (the course for joining the European Union and NATO was fixed in the country's Constitution at the beginning of 2019).

During his inaugural address, the 6th president of Ukraine said that every inhabitant of the country is responsible for the country's European path: “A European country begins with everyone. Yes, we have chosen the path to Europe, but Europe is not somewhere out there, Europe is here. And when Europe is here (in my head - RT. ), It will be here in Ukraine. ”

Soon after, Zelensky made his first international trip to Brussels. During the June visit, the Ukrainian leader met with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Council President Donald Tusk and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

• President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker
• AFP
• © Emmanuel Dunand

As a result of this meeting, in the official Twitter account of the office of the President of Ukraine, his statement appeared on the entry of Ukraine into the EU, uttered in an interview with Tusk. The Ukrainian leader called his country's entry into the EU “the death of the Russian imperial project.”

“Moreover, this is a powerful blow to Russian authoritarianism, the path to democratic change in Russia and throughout the post-Soviet space,” Zelensky quoted as saying in the president’s office.

In early July, speaking in Canada at a conference on reform, the president again spoke about Ukraine’s chosen “path to Europe.” He stated that he would remain true to this direction and would defend such a choice of Ukrainians: “We will continue to cooperate with international financial organizations and will bring the Ukrainian army closer to NATO standards, and Ukraine to NATO.”

Commenting on such differences between the rhetoric of the president and his party’s deputies, political analyst Ivan Mezyuho in an interview with RT suggested that this indicates a lack of common understanding of the strategy that the modern Ukrainian state is moving along.

“In fact, the political power of Zelensky was created from motley people with different worldviews, and all this will result in further contradictions in the form of statements by members of his team. It’s not just that Zelensky’s team took the Ukrainian deputies from the “Servant of the People” to the so-called team building, ”the expert noted.

He also did not rule out that in an unfavorable scenario, a public split could occur in the Verkhovna Rada faction within the Servant of the People faction.

“This is a rather large and heterogeneous group of people, which allows itself to make statements that contradict the official position of the president. For now, this is a rather bland statement. I have no doubt that in the future, parliamentarians from the presidential party will give more harsh comments, ”the expert concluded.