Ukraine and the Vilnius Summit: Time for bitter-sweet illusions

Ahead of the Vilnius Summit (November 28-29, 2013) EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton promised that the high-level meeting would “open a new chapter” in the relationship between the EU and its eastern neighbours. What came out of the Summit, however, resembles discovering to read an old chapter with Ukraine’s decision not to sign the Association Agreement (AA) being the unexpected bitter surprise for Brussels. Three factors determined this outcome: illusions, the process of making foreign policy choices in the common EU-Russia neighbourhood and zero-sum game logic. The case of Ukraine is an expression of all of them.