Ukraine gets assurances that its future includes membership in European Union (10/12/03)

Ukraine gets assurances that its future includes membership in European Union

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine finally received the assurance it had sought for several years when European Commission (EC) President Romano Prodi told journalists in Yalta on October 7 that Ukraine would eventually attain European Union membership.

"Without any doubt Ukraine is a European country. We did not discuss a date, but (membership) is on the agenda," explained Mr. Prodi, who heads the government arm of the European Union (EU).

Mr. Prodi's statement came at a press conference after a three-hour session between himself and Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma, a meeting that was also attended by most of the senior EU leadership, including Javier Solana, the high representative for foreign and security policy, and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose country this year holds the rotating chair of the EU.

Mr. Prodi also noted that closer economic ties between Ukraine and Russia, which has become a major issue in Kyiv after the signing of the Common Economic Space framework treaty among Russia, Belarus, Kazakstan and Ukraine, should not hinder Ukraine's chance to join the EU, reported Interfax-Ukraine.

"The deepening of relations between Ukraine and Russia is not an obstacle to the development of relations between Ukraine and the European Union," said Mr. Prodi.

Although both sides were quick to state that no date had been set for Ukrainian membership and any such action was a long way off, it was a day on which the leaders discussed in specific terms, perhaps for the first time, the road Ukraine must travel if it is to meet the requirements for membership.

Mr. Prodi enumerated the stages to EU membership for Ukraine, which he said were to include intensification of relations and trade at first, followed by Ukraine's acceptance into the World Trade Organization, and then recognition of Ukraine as a free market economy by the EU, which would be followed by the development of a free trade zone between the EU and Ukraine, then associate membership and finally full acceptance into the European structure.

"Discussions on the future relationship between Ukraine and the European Union have never been so substantive as today," explained President Leonid Kuchma during a press conference with the EU leadership after the talks.

Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi said Ukraine needs to concentrate on reforms that would make it a constitutional, law-governed, market-oriented state.

Mr. Berlusconi again met with Mr. Kuchma the next day at the presidential estate near Foros, Crimea, where he counseled that Kyiv needed to show patience while the current EU enlargement, which would continue through 2004, was completed.

"Later, at some as yet unknown time, this will lead to full integration into the EU," explained Mr. Berlusconi.

He added that in the meantime Ukraine needed to develop conditions to fulfill the requirements for WTO membership and then to bring the country's legislative base into line with Europe's. Then, as if to ensure that his initial remark was heard, he repeated: "When it is done, indeed Ukraine will become a full member of the EU."

These were words that President Kuchma, who has waged a vocal battle to get Ukraine status as an associate member in the EU for several years, had wanted to hear for some time.

A week prior to the Yalta summit, the Ukrainian state leader had expressed frustration with the EU leadership in its inability or unwillingness to publicly declare that Ukraine was actually a candidate for membership. Mr. Kuchma had said that friendly neighbor status in a "Wider Europe," a relationship that the EU had proposed for Ukraine along with the Balkan countries and some North African and Middle East states as well, did not reflect Kyiv's needs and desires.

Mr. Kuchma had also expressed a concern that EU was keeping Kyiv at arm's length in response to geopolitical pressure it felt from Moscow. The president tried to tell EU leaders that he understood that Ukraine was far from ready to enter the EU, but that the country needed to hear that the door was open not only symbolically but also in fact.

Nonetheless, in Yalta President Kuchma affirmed Ukraine's accession to the Wider Europe concept as a road to broader involvement in EU programs and more extensive participation in the EU market.

The details of the concept, one of several documents signed by the two sides, obligate the EU "to pursue a policy towards further political and economic rapprochement, gradual integration of social and economic structures between the wider EU and Ukraine."

In turn, it called on Ukraine to examine the Wider Europe concept "irrespective of the issue of its possible accession to the EU."

Also signed in Yalta were documents on cooperation in science and technologies, development of satellite navigation and new mechanisms for EU technical aid to Ukraine.

Mr. Kuchma expressed satisfaction with the expanded dialogue between the two sides, especially on the Wider Europe agreement, which he said would be a good conduit for meeting European standards and expectations. He also praised EU for leaving open the possibility of a simplified visa regime between Ukraine and its western neighbors, all of which will be EU members by the end of 2004.

"I see that we are now meeting each other half way, which is the most important thing," Mr. Kuchma commented.

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