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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

No Special Exceptions For Ukraine

13 July, 1999 - 00:00

The main objective of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's
visit to Ukraine was supposed to be to persuade Ukraine's leadership not
to complete construction of two reactors at the Rivne and Khmelnytsky nuclear
power stations. This was a demand imposed on the Chancellor by the ruling
Social Democrat/Green coalition, but German analysts doubted the success
of this mission in advance. And rightly so, for Mr. Schroeder failed to
convince anyone of anything. President Leonid Kuchma also seems not to
have much persuaded the Germans to invest more actively in Ukraine, although
eight documents were signed during the visit, mostly about joint projects.
It is perhaps for such cases that a new term has been devised: top-level
consultations, after which the parties usually note satisfaction over the
summit.

Mr. Kuchma promised "to do all I can for German capital to feel much
better in Ukraine than it does now." The Germans, unlike the Americans,
did not cause much of a scandal over the Ukrainian investment climate or
anything else: they were simply not very willing to come here. It is funny
and sad to compare the multibillion dollar investments by German companies
in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Estonia, with their $231.8
million plowed into Ukraine over the past eight years, sad because the
promise to improve the investment climate is being made by the very same
head of state who has failed to do this for the last five years, when European
business was still interested in Ukrainian opportunities. Mr. Schroeder
says that "good framework conditions" should be created first, and he is
quite right. According to the Chancellor, Ukraine should also "observe
contractual obligations" and repay loan interest. Well said! Still, the
Chancellor simultaneously noted that "the two sides managed to achieve
certain progress." Incidentally, in his interview with our newspaper he
left unanswered The Day's question about his attitude toward the
low level of German investments in the Ukrainian economy.

It is very hard to foresee a sudden abrupt rise in the inflow of German
capital to Ukraine under the conditions when Verkhovna Rada banned (quite
deservedly so) governmental credit guarantees for any kind of projects.
According to Deputy Premier Serhiy Tyhypko, the German side so far insists
on nothing but government loan guarantees. However, even governmental guarantees
failed to make LINOS return the credit it got back in 1992.

Nor did we hear the Chancellor's reply to a question Kyiv traditionally
puts to all European leaders: can we rely in the nearest future on the
German support of Ukraine's aspiration to become an associate EU member?
Perhaps the reason was that Mr. Kuchma said Ukraine would under no circumstances
fail to complete construction of the two reactors and would insist that
the G-7 meet its obligations in this area.

That Mr. Schroeder has in fact made no concrete promises is not strange.
To be able at least to receive firm promises, Ukraine must overcome Western
disappointment in it and understand that nobody will devise any special
rules of the game for it. Mr. Schroeder's visit, after all, shows that
all trust has not yet been lost. And, at least so far, Ukraine is still
being consulted, if only for the sake of appearances, about European integration
and Balkan stabilization.

(For more details see page Day after Day)

PS: The Day's editors express cordial thanks to the Ukrainian
President's press service for its refusal to accredit this newspaper's
correspondent (as well as those of other Kyiv papers) to the final press
conference of Messrs. Kuchma and Schroeder, explaining this by the excessive
number of German journalists accredited to cover the German Chancellor's
visit.

 

 

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