Central European leaders meet at summit in Lviv (05/23/99)

Central European leaders meet at summit in Lviv

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

LVIV - Nine Central European presidents met in Lviv on May 14-15, hoping to boost the prospects of European integration for those countries that stand at the periphery of the continent.

Although dubbed a "summit," the agenda of meetings was loosely structured. The trappings of high office were ever present and security was tight, but except for a single two-hour plenary session, most of the talks were held in relaxed, informal settings.

It was a conference that focused as much on how to avoid alienating European countries that have not yet been allowed to enter Europe's predominant political and economic structures as it did on the Balkan war, Europe's most severe crisis since World War II.

"Enlargement is important to the security of all of Europe," said Austrian President Thomas Klestil in summing up the main achievement of the summit at a press conference. "It is a tragedy that this century is ending as it began. By working for integration we are building a secure Europe."

During two days of meetings, the presidents discussed a wide range of issues, including visa requirements and regulations, border controls and ways to stem the illegal transport of immigrants, contraband and narcotics across borders.

As Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma emphasized, the accent was on how the European integrational processes currently under way affect individual citizens.

"It is precisely the human factor that will finally determine the success of European integration," said Mr. Kuchma, who hosted the event in this historic Ukrainian city of nearly 1 million residents, which is the unofficial capital of western Ukraine.

The Ukrainian president said it was absolutely necessary that the country's borders with its western neighbors "remain as open and transparent as their borders with the European Union are today."

The talks, which are held annually in a different city of the region, this year centered on how the just-completed enlargement of NATO and the imminent expansion of the European Union will affect the European integration of countries not yet part of one or the other organization. Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, whose presidents attended the Lviv summit, joined NATO earlier this year and are strong candidates to join the European Union in the near future.

Ukraine has expressed concern that NATO membership for the three countries, which constitute Ukraine's western border, could in effect create a new Iron Curtain, alienating the country from the rest of Europe as it becomes a buffer zone between Russia and the West.

President Kuchma, said he was pleased, however, with the positive dialogue regarding Ukraine and Europe that took place during the summit.

"I believe it is important that my colleagues have supported the entry of Ukraine into European and trans-Atlantic structures and the democratization process that is currently going on in Ukraine," he said.

President Klestil of Austria said during a private meeting with President Kuchma that he would continue to act as a spokesman for Ukraine in European structures and advocate that Ukraine should receive full European Union membership, according to President Kuchma's press secretary, Oleksander Martynenko.

The Central European leaders agreed that the Schengen Accord, a treaty among many of the countries that belong to the European Union that allows visa-free travel between them, should be reviewed to allow the same benefits to countries such as Bulgaria, Ukraine and Romania. President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland agreed to call a conference of Schengen Accord member-countries to review the matter.

The Polish president also proposed to host a conference in Warsaw on the illegal movement of people, contraband and drugs across international borders.

The Kosovo crisis played a significant part in the discussions, as well, and the nine leaders issued a joint statement on the Balkan war that condemned "ethnic cleansing" and called on Serbia to fulfill the demands of the Rambouillet Agreement. It also recommended that the United Nations be given the key role in resolving the conflict.

"We, the presidents of the Central European countries strongly condemn the systematic terror in Kosovo, cruelties against children, rapes, robberies and expulsions, which are used as the means of ethnic cleansing," read the first paragraph of the only official statement to come out of the conference.

Presidents Klestil of Austria and Milan Kucan of Slovenia proposed an international conference to be held in Vienna, with participation by the U.N., the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the European Union and the Council of Europe, which would plan the reconstruction of a post-war Yugoslavia and develop a strategy for the Balkans, the southeast corner of Europe that historically has been the most unstable region of Europe.

The proposal was part of the summit's joint statement, which the leaders recommended should become an official United Nations document.

This year the Central European meeting was attended by Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic, Roman Herzog of Germany, Pietr Stoyanov of Bulgaria, Arpad Goncz of Hungary, Emil Constantinescu of Romania, Mr. Klestil of Austria, Mr. Kwasniewski of Poland, Mr. Kucan of Slovenia and President Kuchma. Italy, which also belongs to the Central European club of leaders, chose not to attend because its presidential elections were scheduled just days before the summit.

Although the summit included a formal plenary session on May 14, the leaders did most of their talking in the privacy of the Dnister Hotel, home to all the presidents and their entourages; or on the narrow, cobblestoned streets of Lviv, where the presidents took impromptu leisurely strolls; and during a late dinner at the Lviv National Opera House, where they had attended a 50-minute concert of Ukrainian classical music.

The presidents also visited the Lviv National Museum, the Taras Shevchenko Monument and the Mykhailo Hrushevsky-Ivan Franko Homesteads Memorial Museum.

At the national museum the leaders viewed priceless icons and artwork from Ukraine's medieval past. During the ceremony at the Shevchenko monument, located in the city center's Freedom Square, they watched as a military honor guard laid a 20-meter wreath at the foot of the memorial. At the Mykhailo Hrushevsky-Ivan Franko Homesteads Memorial Museum, two adjoining country houses once owned by the two early 20th century Ukrainian writers, the heads of state planted nine apple trees as a symbol of Central European unity.

The event, formally called "The Summit of Central European Presidents," was the fourth official summit of European leaders of former Warsaw Pact nations and the countries neighboring them, but the first on the former territory of the Soviet Union. From 1994 to1996 two other Central European leadership meetings not carrying the designation "summit" had been held with fewer countries participating.

The idea for an annual summit developed from a meeting in June 1993 of four of the leaders, Messrs. Klestil, Havel, Goncz and Richard Von Weizsacker, who was president of Germany at the time, at the Salzburg Music Festival. The idea was to hold an annual get-together of Central European leaders in a different country of the region in a city known for its cultural and architectural splendor.

Lviv, with its Viennese-influenced architecture and internationally acclaimed opera house, was this year's choice. The city was designated an architectural preserve in the 1970s by the Soviet Union. Last year UNESCO added Lviv to its list of architecturally significant cities of the world.

For Ukraine, the summit was a chance to gain the ear of European leaders. President Kuchma said at the summit's close that he was most pleased the summit had underscored Ukraine's central role in Europe.

"Holding the summit in Lviv will help in building trust towards Ukraine," said President Kuchma.

The summit was also an opportunity for Ukraine to display its western capital, known as the "Pearl of Europe," before the presidents, the more than 1,000 aides and workers who followed them here, and the 350 or so journalists who reported on the summit.

Lviv officials hoped that the city, which had undergone a significant face lift (see sidebar) in the months before the summit, would receive positive publicity, which might eventually bring badly needed international investment.

Czech President Havel, in noting historical and architectural influences, said of Lviv: "It is a typical European city."

President Kuchma, in welcoming his guests at the beginning of the plenary session, strove to underscore the "Europeanness" of the city and the country. "Feel at home here because you are at home. You are in the heart of Europe."

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