Ukraine--A Net Assessment of 16 Years of Independence

In February 2008, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) publicly released a report entitled Ukraine: A Net Assessment of 16 Years of Independence. The report was prepared for the U.S.-EU Partnership Committee for Ukraine, which is cochaired by Zbigniew Brzezinski and Volker Ruehe. It outlined the impressive achievements that the Ukrainian people had made since regaining independence in 1991 while also noting areas of major shortfalls and setbacks in building a modern, democratic, European state.

The report concluded with key tasks and recommendations for the Ukrainian government, European Union, and U.S. government. In the view of the authors, these comprised the key areas for attention, both in terms of internal Ukrainian reform and strengthening Ukraine’s links with European and Euro-Atlantic institutions. The key tasks focused on steps that could be accomplished relatively quickly, with a view to taking advantage of the fact that, in February 2008, Ukraine had almost two years before the next scheduled election. Copies of the report were transmitted to senior Ukrainian government officials in both the presidential secretariat and the cabinet of ministers in Kyiv, as well as to representatives of the European Union and the U.S. government.

This paper assesses the progress made by the Ukrainian government, European Union, and U.S. government in implementing the recommendations over the past year.