Norms and Conditionality: The EU and Ukraine

Abstract:

As 2012 unfolded, what could have become the year when Ukraine concluded an Association Agreement with the EU proved the most ‘political’ year ever in EU–Ukraine relations. Especially the court case against Yulia Timoshenko, former prime minister and presidential candidate in the 2010 presidential elections, has remained problematic as a glaring example of not only selective justice, but selec- tive injustice. Subsequently, the EU has promoted a policy of strict conditionality in the observance of democratic elections, legal a airs and human rights as a condition for its Association Agreements.