Ukraine in the coordinates of the Eastern Partnership 2017-2020
Expert review of the Joint Staff Working Document on Eastern Partnership – 20 Deliverables for 2020: Focusing on Key Priorities and Tangible Results.
The Joint Staff Working Document on .Eastern Partnership – 20 Deliverables for 2020: Focusing on Key Priorities and Tangible Results., drafted in the EU in December 2016 and updated in June 2017, offers one more attempt to set development vectors based on a real reform progress and democratic transformations reached with EU support in the Partner Countries. The value of this medium-term program is that the deliverables the document suggests are based on four key priorities areas agreed upon two years ago at the Riga EaP Summit and stated in its Joint Declaration. This is an indication of the efforts made by European institutions to ensure the sustainability of EaP strategic directions, while making the assistance, as well as expectations, more profound and specific in their forms.
Experts of the Ukrainian National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (UNP EaP CSF) under the auspices of the Civic Synergy project have thoroughly analyzed the Joint Staff Working Document’s deliverables in the light of interests of the Ukrainian society and state. Each of the 20 deliverables was scrutinized to estimate how much real it is for Ukraine to meet their milestones by the November 2017 EaP Summit, as well as how much ambitious and achievable are the ultimate targets by 2020.
On the basis of the expert review findings, UNP members identified existing and potential barriers on the way to these goals, and suggested more accurate wording for the milestones by 2017 Summit and the targets by 2020. They also defined additional goals within the EaP policy framework, which had not been included in the document but are important for both Ukraine and other Partner Countries.