Merkel Rows Back, Media Keeps Quiet

Ukraine: Merkel rows back and mention the media keeps quiet.

Responsible: Jens Berger, 26. Aug. 2014

Link: http://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=22961

There are things that we learn in the media if at all only at the edge of something. Amazin-gly, the official position of Chancellor for Ukraine conflictis one of it. On Sunday AngelaMerkel said in the ARD summer interview a few things one has to assess as distancing fromthe EU confrontation. The Ukrainian government will have not just registered this with be-nevolence. And the otherwise joyful confrontational German media do not seem to Mer-kel's words to be particularly weighed - is different from their silence hard to interpret.

Merkel: "And what we say and I also as someone who has experienced that Germany couldperform the German unit in peace with the consent also of the neighbors, which also saythat the Ukrainian people must have the opportunity to choose his path. And the EuropeanUnion would never, if Ukraine says, we now go to the Eurasian Union, make it into a hugeconflict, but we rely on the voluntary decision. I sit but also on the territorial integrity ofUkraine and that all Ukrainians be heard."

Angela Merkel during the summer interview with ARD

Merkel: "The Eurasian Union is that needs to be said, there was hardly reported on this to-pic in Germany, the Russian counter-proposal to the European Union. On May 29 this year,the contracts for the Eurasian Economic Union (EAWU) signed by the Government of Rus-sia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. On January 1, 2015, the Union, which should be similar to theformer EU primarily an economic and customs union with a common market and an eco-nomic policy coordination should apply. The Eurasian Union is a further development ofthe "Customs Union", which were considered as an alternative to "EU Association Agre-ement 'by the Ukrainian ex-president Yanukovych, which led to the first demonstrations onthe Maidan."

Addressed to the EU Association, Merkel said on Sunday very cautious:

Merkel: "We have now for the first time an association agreement. We have cooperatedwith many countries, for example, with Turkey to the to say. So that's something, a status ofthe joint neighborhood. We have called the Eastern Partnership. And I will find a way, likemany others, the Russia is not damaged. We also want to have good trade relations withRussia. We want to have reasonable relations with Russia."

Enthusiasm for EU association probably looks different. In this point, Angela Merkel - andthis is well known, extremely rare - but absolutely right. For all concerned, the EU, Russiaand the Ukraine, would be a harmonious coexistence of the "Eastern Partnership" of the EUand the "Eurasian Union" the best solution.

This sees the new central government in Kiev but diametrically different - they want asquickly as possible not only in the EU but also in NATO. If Merkel now a NATO member-ship for Ukraine clearly rejected and the Ukraine are on the way that the bilateral relationsbetween Germany and Russia are more important than an EU association with Ukraine, sothis is a clear signal. The larmoyante Note, the EU would not stand up against a Ukraine'saccession to the Eurasian Union, is also a 180-degree turn, the European Commission hea-

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ted but the crisis in Ukraine in recent years with the finding of a country could not be amember of a customs union and a far-reaching free trade zone with the EU ".

It is amazing that Merkel's statements were as good as not included in the German media.Apparently the polarized confrontation media have no interest in de-escalation. Otherwiseit is difficult to explain that statements of Chancellor, which is but otherwise praised forevery trivial phrase in the sky, are now not even noted.

Very different was - as expected - the reaction in the Ukraine. To little more to do to be re-vised facts, President Poroshenko announced now to ratify the controversial AssociationAgreement in September - one month before the announcement of elections that createnew majority in the Rada may. And also in Brussels were heard Merkel's words. Some EUgraduate students evaluate the statements, the EU Observer, even as a sign that Berlin nowover the heads of Brussels and Kiev away, a compromise with Russia seeks and soon stepsout of the common EU line. And that would do God good news.

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