Ukraine and the Eastern Partnership after Vilnius

The Eastern Partnership’s Vilnius Summit is due to start tomorrow. Georgia and Moldova hope to initial their Association Agreements and look set to progress further on the road towards European integration. Ukraine, however, pulled out of signing at the last minute under Russian pressure to draw it into the Eurasian Union. Massive protests on the streets of Ukraine show a clear pro-EU orientation on the part of the people. But President Yanukovych is still in power and ex-Prime Minister Tymoshenko is still in jail. Where does Ukraine and the Eastern Partnership go from here?

Orysia Lutsevych is a non-resident Robert Bosch Fellow in the Russia and Eurasia programme at Chatham House.She has many years of non-profit management experience in Ukraine, US, Poland and Georgia. She is also the author of a Chatham House paper titled “How to Finish a Revolution: Civil Society and Democracy in Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova”. She will be attending the Vilnius Summit.

Andrew Wilson is a Senior Policy Fellow at ECFR. He has published widely on the politics and culture of the European neighbourhood, particularly on Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, and on the comparative politics of democratisation in the post-Soviet states. He will be attending the Vilnius Summit.

Dimitar Bechev is a Senior Policy Fellow and Head of ECFR's office in Sofia. He is an expert on EU enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy, the Western Balkans, Turkey and EU-Russia relations.