Kuchma expresses exasperation with EU (10/05/03)

Kuchma expresses exasperation with EU

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Putting pressure on the European Union to act in preparation for the annual EU-Ukraine summit, President Leonid Kuchma said on September 30 that Kyiv is frustrated by Brussels' unwillingness to move the country along a distinct path to EU membership.

"How long can Ukraine sit on the sidelines?" asked the Ukrainian president. "We have grown quite weary of this."

Mr. Kuchma voiced his exasperation with the lack of movement in the development of a deeper relationship with the European Union one week before the annual meeting between EU and Ukrainian leaders, which is scheduled for Yalta on October 7-8.

Mr. Kuchma blamed the EU for the paralysis and noted that the EU has failed to act on repeated Ukrainian requests for associate membership over the last couple of years, with the explanation, stated repeatedly, that Ukraine didn't fit the model for such a relationship. Nonetheless, as the president noted, Turkey has had associate membership in the EU for more than 40 years.

"Has [the EU] lost anything from this?" asked Mr. Kuchma.

The Ukrainian leader was uncharacteristically blunt in his assessment of the EU-Ukraine relationship during a regular monthly press briefing in the Presidential Administration Building. He questioned why Brussels was not willing to give advance assurance that if Ukraine made the needed changes and fulfilled the Copenhagen Agreement, it would eventually be included in the exclusive European club of countries.

"Not one of the (EU) officials has ever stated that he wants to see Ukraine in the EU," noted Mr. Kuchma.

The source of Mr. Kuchma's frustration is the EU's unwillingness to offer Ukraine anything more than a role in its "Wider Europe" program, a new structural relationship in which countries that have status as friendly neighboring states of the EU would obtain certain limited trade and transportation privileges. That list is relatively broad and includes countries in Northern Africa and the Middle East, as well as the Balkan states and Ukraine.

Nonetheless, Mr. Kuchma admitted that Ukraine was far from ready to join the EU as a full member. He explained that Ukraine today could not offer Europe quality goods and services, with the exception of a cheap, albeit trained, labor force, and "would not last a day in that competitive market."

"Let's stop declaring our desire to be an EU member, and let's make the objective one of attaining EU standards. And one more thing, even if they proposed full EU membership to us today, I would decline," explained the Ukrainian president.

Yet he emphasized that Ukraine had made important strides in working through the EU agreement on cooperation as well as his own plan for Euro-integration. However, he questioned why Brussels had not recognized Ukraine's improved economic situation by at least offering it the status of a free market economy, which it had already extended to Russia and Moldova.

He supplied his own answer by stating that the matter of Ukraine's membership in the EU was not just about reforms and economics, but about global politics as well.

"I am going to say something that I perhaps should not," stated Mr. Kuchma. "The EU is always looking at Ukraine through the prism of the Russia Federation, whether we want it or not."

Mr. Kuchma rejected again the notion that he was moving Ukraine into a customs union with Russia, Kazakstan and Belarus. He was blunt in his assessment of how the recently signed framework would affect Ukraine's declared Euro-integration effort and entry into the World Trade Organization, and said he would not deviate from the requirements and goals as presented in his decree on the subject.

"The development of the CES [common economic space] will be in line with EU and WTO requirements," explained Mr. Kuchma.

While many in Ukraine's political opposition have gone so far as to begin a petition drive to impeach President Kuchma for signing the CES framework agreement with Russia and its two neighbors, a German political scientist speaking on a BBC Ukrainian Service program on September 28 said that Mr. Kuchma, in signing the agreement - which the German academic emphasized was merely declarative in character - had made a smart move to put pressure on the EU to act on Ukrainian membership.

Alexander Rar, director of programs for the German Association of Foreign Policy, said that, while he agreed with Mr. Kuchma that Ukraine had been forced to develop an economic agreement with its northeastern neighbors, he nonetheless believed the agreement was a political ploy to "slightly terrorize" the EU into embracing Ukraine. Mr. Rar said that the EU now was feeling pressure from the United States "to keep the door to Ukraine open," or face the economic division of the European continent.

Mr. Rar's theory differs somewhat from another one that has floated in Kyiv political circles recently in which the CES is also recognized as a Potemkin village, with the major difference being that the façade is being presented to develop an image for Russian President Vladimir Putin as the person leading Russia's re-ascension to renewed control over the Eastern European and Central Asian region in order to bolster his popularity in the run-up to March presidential elections in Russia.

The EU-Ukraine annual summit will take place as the doors for travel to the EU for Ukrainians begin to close a bit.

On October 1 Poland implemented a new visa regime at the Ukrainian border, albeit cost-free for now, as a requirement for its entry into the EU, which is scheduled for next year. On November 1 the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, also due to enter the EU next year, will introduce similar visa regimes, which will limit access for Ukrainians to these countries. After March of next year, when Ukraine's four western neighbors sign the Schengen Accord, fees will be attached to the visas.

| Home Page |