The Ukrainian leadership will be slow to make a decision on joining the Customs Union in 2013.
This opinion was expressed by Ukrainian experts at a press conference in Kyiv on Ukrainian-Russian relations in 2013.

“The Ukrainian government has no interest in deciding this issue in 2013 (accession to the Customs Union – ed.). They are interested in putting a dash, perhaps even an equality sign between the priority of relations with the European Union and the Customs Union. Though, both signs are from different equations,” Volodymyr Horbach, a political analyst of the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation, says.

According to him, this is due to the expectations of a possible signing at the summit of Eastern Partnership in Vilnius in November of the association and free trade area agreement, which would be impossible in the case of Ukraine’s accession to the Customs Union.

Meanwhile, he does not rule out a scenario where at the end of 2013 the Ukrainian leadership will decide to join the Customs Union, “if, for example, because of certain conditions, the signing of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU is frustrated” and under the terms of increasing pressure from Russia and the worsening economic situation.

The director of Information and Analytical Center Perspective, Pavlo Rudiakov, also predicts that 2013 will be spent in anticipation of signing of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU, and any “flicks” in the foreign policy of Ukraine are not going to happen.

ukrinform