A statement from EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele, via RFE/RL's correspondent in Brussels, Rikard Jozwiak, in response to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's reformist Strategy-2020, which he announced today and said will allow the country to apply for EU membership by 2020:
"We support Ukraine in its efforts to deliver on the necessary political and economic reforms to achieve the modernization of the country.
"Currently we are working with Ukraine on the implementation of the Association Agreement, which offers [a] blueprint for these reform[s] and modernization.
"The European Council has recently stated that the Association Agreement does not constitute the final goal of our cooperation.
"What is important right now is to focus on the immediate challenges the country is facing and on ways...to tackle them in the most effective way for the benefit of the people of Ukraine.
"It is for Ukraine to make its free and sovereign choices about its ambitions, orientation, and external relations."
Russian lawyer Pavel Chikov and his Agora group were today awarded an annual human rights prize by Rafto, a Norwegian human rights foundation.
Chikov and Agora were selected for the prize for helping activists, bloggers, journalists, and nongovernmental organizations against the unlawful actions of Russian government agencies, the Rafto Foundation said.
Four previous winners -- Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi, East Timor's Jose Ramos-Horta, South Korea's Kim Dae-jung, and Iran's Shirin Ebadi -- later went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Reuters quotes Chikov as saying he believes this year's Nobel, to be announced on October 10, should go to someone linked to the conflict in Ukraine, which, he said, "was provoked by the Russian authorities."
Some choice quotes from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's press conference today in Kyiv:
"Our internal challenges are no less dangerous than the threats we face from the east. Corruption, poverty, economic backwardness -- these are the most challenging threats to us and they are the strongest allies of terrorists and interventionists who are now in the trenches in the east, because they have been fighting against us not only for Donbas -- the scum who remain there have a completely different goal: to destroy our country and to prevent us from standing up straight on our own so that we could be a successful example worth emulating."
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"A long period of stable and prosperous life has weakened Europe. It has created an illusion of an eternal and durable peace propped up by European values that presumably have taken hold on the entire space from Lisbon to Vladivostok without exemptions. This peace, as it turned out, was very fragile, the structure that supported it unreliable, and security is no longer taken for granted by anyone."
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"Today, our eastern border is where the front line for united Europe lies. This is why the support for Ukraine from the world's democratic countries and nations is so strong, as is the understanding that our courageous victory will be a victory for all of Europe."
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"Our plan is clearly called Strategy 2020, for only reforms can uplift the country that is unable to respond to the needs of its citizens with a total collapse being the only available alternative. Only reforms can meet revolutionary expectations of Ukrainian citizens -- the driving, active part of our society -- with powerful wave of protests being the only available alternative. Only reforms can be the answer to our potential international investors and the only available alternative to that is staying one-on-one with Russia."
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"In order to persevere, we need to break our neo-feudalistic political model, dismantle the mechanism that enabled a small circle of oligarchs and corrupt bureaucrats to make a fortune from privatizing the entire country, gutting it and tossing it to bleed. We are obliged to create a society where order prevails."
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"I have no doubt that the main and most dangerous part of war is already behind us thanks to the heroism of Ukrainian soldiers and officers, which is the reason why changes cannot be delayed, because a week and incapable country is quick to lose and defense needs can only be met by a strong and robust economy."
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"Reforms need to be systematic and affect all political, economic, and social institutions at the same time. Strategy 2020 contains over 60 reforms. These 60 reforms and special programs must be launched simultaneously."
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"I am not bothered by who is against the reforms. The fact that the Ukrainian people stand behind these reforms is of principle importance for me because it means that we are invincible."