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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (left), President of the European Council Donald Tusk (right) and the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker walk next to each other after a Ukraine-EU summit in Kiev on July 13, 2017. | Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images

Brussels and Kiev celebrate fresh ties but Dutch disagreement casts shadow over talks.

By David Stern

7/13/17, 9:51 PM CET

Updated 7/15/17, 11:47 AM CET

KIEV Ukrainian and European Union leaders ended a two-day summit Thursday that celebrated their growing closeness while also highlighting points of tension between the two sides.

European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission PresidentJean-Claude Juncker arrived in Kiev on Wednesday evening for talks with President Petro Poroshenko and other top officials.

Itshould have been a victory lap after one of the most successful periods in relations with Brussels in Ukraines history. Last month, the EU granted Ukrainians the right to travel to Europes Schengen zone without visas one of their most prized foreign policy goals. This week, the EUratified a far-reaching Association Agreement with Kiev, which had been more than a decade in the making.

But a disagreement over wording, which left organizers without a final summit communiqu, cast a shadow over the gathering.

At issue was a line declaring that the European Union acknowledges Ukraines European aspirations and welcomes its European choice which had been included in a statement after the EUs 2015 Eastern Partnership summit, as well as written into the ratified political and trade agreement.

But a disagreement over wording, which left organizers without a final summit communiqu, cast a shadow over the gathering.

According to European diplomats, Dutch officials insisted additional language be inserted into the final statement, to reflect a 2016 European Council decision thatthe Association Agreement did not guarantee Ukraine a path to become an EU member. The Dutch parliament had earlier ratified the deal on the condition that this did not lead to automatic membership for Ukraine.

EU officials said Ukraine and its EU allies insisted the line must be included without alteration. So in the end, the seven-page document, which had been laboriously negotiated over weeks, was not issued.

Some observers were at a loss as to why a compromise could not be reached perhaps by leaving out the line altogether.

Practically, this is not a big deal, said one European diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. But symbolically its damaging. It shows a lack of unity.

Atthe moment this is more a question of language than policy. The Netherlands, officials say, is supportive of Ukraine in private discussions; however, Dutch officials take a harder line in public, fearful of providing political ammunition to the countrys far right.

Within the EU theres a certain amount of unity, at least for the moment, over the policy toward Ukraine reflected by the extension last month of sanctions against Russia for its annexation of Crimea and destabilization campaign within Ukraine.

The Association Agreement is viewed as the capstone of this consensus, though the path to ratification was strewn with rocks.

Moscow opposed the deal from the outset, pressuring Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraines president at the time, to reject it in 2013. This unleashed pro-Western protests and clashes in the capital, which ultimately drove Yanukovych from power.

The agreement was signed, but fighting broke out in Ukraines east, which grew into a conflict thats killed more than 10,000 people and decimated the countrys economy. Meanwhile, Dutch voters rejected the Association Agreement in a referendum, concerned over what commitments it made to the Ukrainians.

After Dutch concerns were assuaged by fellow EU leaders, there was a sense of mission accomplished among European and Ukrainian officials in Kiev on Thursday. Tusk even handed Poroshenko a document formally confirming ratification.

Moscow opposed the deal from the outset, pressuring Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraines president at the time, to reject it in 2013.

[This] was a kind of milestone summit, to summarize all the work that has been done, said European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis. Now we are discussing how to fully use the potential of the Association Agreement and deepen cooperation in a number of sectors.

But though membership is not on the table at the moment, Ukrainian officials are keen to establish other incentives they can work toward and hold out to the public as possibilities for the future. In remarks after the summit, Poroshenko expressed hopes for Ukraine to become a member of the EU customs union and Schengen open-border zone.

EU officials were noncommittal.

Furthermore, it remains to be seen how fully Ukraine implements the Association Agreements commitments, which comeinto full effect in September and involve wide-ranging political, legal, economic and quality-control reforms.

Ultimately, Ukraines endemic corruption was the biggest point of concern. EU leaders warned their Ukrainian counterparts that this had to be their primary focus, otherwise all the hard work of the past years couldbe undone.

What were asking we wont be lecturing the country because this isnt a country that needs to be lectured is to increase the fight against corruption, Juncker said. Corruption is undermining all the efforts this great nation is undertaking.

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EU and Ukraine close but not that close - POLITICO.eu