In the Spotlight: "Ukraine 2014: EU Sanctions and the EU Association Agreement"
In November 2013 the former president of Ukraine, Victor Yanukovych, decided not to sign the association agreement with the European Union. The statement that he postponed signing, resulted in the Maidan protests in Kyiv for a period of three months starting at 21 November 2013 and ending officially at 21 February 2014. Two days later Yanukovych left the country and two weeks later Yanukovych and other Ukrainian officials became subject to EU restrictive measures.
My thesis consists of three parts: 1) the period before Victor Yanukovych decided not to sign the association agreement, 2) the period of the Maidan protests and 3) the period after the signing of the so-called “Agreement to regulate the crisis” when Yanukovych left to Russia and EU sanctions became into force.
In my thesis I describe the historical developments in Ukraine over the abovementioned period from a legal point of view. Part one and two of my research consist of the analyse of the agreements and treaties applicable between Ukraine and the EU, and Ukraine and Russia. Taking into account the much criticized specifics of Ukrainian law at that time, the interpretation of the agreements in force and the willingness to sign the association agreement with the EU resulted in unbridgeable legal issues. The EU promoted the rule-of-law in a country where the “sovetskaya prokuratura” was still alive. This reality resulted in challenging dilemmas. The third part of my research concerns the first round of EU sanctions (in force as of 6 March 2014). These sanctions are the result of the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and based upon decisions of the Council. Yanukovych and his entourage extensively and fruitlessly made use of the annulment procedures before the Court of Justice in Luxembourg. The fact that the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is applicable on these political high sensitive procedures, resulted in a legally interesting friction between theory and practise.
| Last modified: | 08 February 2019 1.25 p.m. |