Then EU membership will be possible
By Olena KANISHCHENKO, Oleksa PIDLUTSKY, The Day
"The past ten years have shown: there is nothing impossible in politics.
Thus, we cannot rule out Ukraine's membership of the European Union," Frasier
Cameron, political counselor at the European Commission, said optimistically
at the symposium entitled Ukraine and the European Union: Economic Reality
and Political Vision held May 17-18 in Kyiv.
"It is time to stop saying that Ukraine is still to make a European
choice," First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Yevhen Bersheda
said, "The European choice does not contradict the policy of multivectorism,
and Ukraine has already made it."
However, one might dispute the Ukrainian diplomat here. Ukraine and
Moldova are the only countries in Central and Eastern Europe which have
not yet officially identified their strategic objective in cooperating
with the European Union. For there are three possible ways: to strive to
become a full EU member after being for some period an associate member,
to consider associate membership the final realistic aim, or, finally,
confine itself to establishing a free trade area with the European Union.
Russia and Belarus do not think it advisable to become full EU members.
All the remaining countries in the region want precisely this. And only
Kyiv and Chisinau have not yet decided what degree of integration with
the European Union is optimum for them. It is not enough for our authorities
to speak about "movement toward the Euro-Atlantic structures." To reach
a certain aim, one must at least define this aim clearly.
On the other hand, the European Union, too, has no collective strategy
toward Ukraine: nobody can answer the question of whether Brussels wants
to see Ukraine as part of the EU, even in the long-term. This option is
only "not ruled out" for Kyiv, nor for any other country of Europe for
that matter.
At the close of the symposium, its participants adopted the Kyiv European
Declaration which stated, "The Ukrainian choice of the European Union should
assume the form of a clearly worded strategy of relationships with Ukraine."
Such a strategy should determine in no uncertain terms the final goal:
Ukraine's membership of the European Union in the future and acquisition
of associate status in the medium term. But this declaration still remains
the opinion of a group of private persons, as Winfried Schneider-Deters,
Friedrich Ebert Foundation director for cooperation with Ukraine, rightly
noted. This foundation, which had organized the symposium together with
the Ukrainian Society of Foreign Policy, managed to attract many highly
qualified analysts, legislators, and diplomats from Germany, Poland, Great
Britain, EU staff, and, naturally, Ukraine. There really are forces in
Western Europe, interested in Ukraine's European choice.
"But in spite of all support the European Union can and will render
to Kyiv, Ukraine itself must make the main effort" was the leitmotif in
the speeches of practically all Western participants.







