External democracy promotion in Ukraine: the role of the European Union

The article explores the role of the European Union in promoting democracy in Ukraine over the past decade and a half. It looks at both European Union (EU) policy and domestic factors and draws on the relevant experience of the Central and East European countries and the EU's role in their political transformation. The article argues that the EU's impact on Ukraine's democratization has so far been limited due to both the policy of the EU and domestic factors in Ukraine. In the early 1990s the EU chose not to treat Ukraine as one of the Central and East European countries, which determined the subsequent choice of policy instruments and reinforced the ambiguity of Ukraine's orientation. The EU has also failed to make its policy values-based, and a Russia-first policy persisted for a long time. Weak conditionality and socialization are other elements that have characterized the EU's policy towards Ukraine. As far as domestic factors are concerned, political competition was rather weak in Ukraine prior to 2...