Talking About Ukraine: Ukraine in the EU Parliamentary Discourse Before, During and After Euromaidan

This paper investigates changes in the framing of the EU/Ukraine relation in the European Parliament discourse about membership before, during and after the Euromaïdan crisis. In the last decade, the status of the EU/Ukraine relation has been a sensitive geopolitical issue on the European continent. Before 2013, Ukraine’s “European aspirations” had been met with caution by European institutions. But when Ukrainian President Yanukovych refused to sign the Association Agreement with the EU in November 2013 and the Euromaïdan political movement rose, asking for a deepening of the relations between Ukraine and the EU, they were met with an important support from the European Parliament. In this paper, we seek to uncover how members of parliament justify their position with regards to Ukraine, and the effects of these changes on Ukrainian membership decisions. To address these questions, we investigate four aspects of European parliament discourse: the identification of actors discussing the Ukrainian issue, the classification of the frames they use in discussing the Ukrainian situation, the description of dominant discourse coalitions, and finally the explanation of changes in individual actors’ positions through time. By unveiling how actors justify their position on EU/Ukraine relations before, during and after the crisis, we seek to uncover the conditions under which a political discourse can successfully shift, and the effects of this shift on political practices.