Question of <I>The Day</I>

Volodymyr TANDURA, Associate Professor, Chernihiv Shevchenko State University:

“The future president should instruct the agencies concerned to draw a realistic picture of Western international organizations, especially for the younger generations, even by placing respective chapters in school textbooks. The curriculum should include special courses on NATO and the European Union. The relevant information must be spread by way of books, brochures, and television. Souvenirs with NATO and EU logos, some elements of military uniform, should be sold without any barriers.

“Western organizations annually invite small groups of Ukrainian journalists and public figures to the NATO and European Union headquarters. It is now time the Ukrainian side showed initiative. Foreign travel agencies, supported by the State Tourism Administration, could include these authoritative organizations in their itineraries, which would let thousands of people develop a correct idea of NATO and the EU.”

Dmytro VYDRIN, director, European Institute of Integration and Development:

“If this country’s future leadership chooses to seek integration into NATO and the EU, the two elitist European clubs, it must understand the following. Each of these clubs has a charter of its own that enumerates the conditions that the prospective member must meet. For example, the main requirement for EU membership is the level of, above all, democratic freedoms and economic development, including, by the way, average wages. We will therefore be able to claim elite European club membership only when we have European-level living standards, quality of life, and an ample European set of certain political, social and intellectual freedoms.

“I consider utterly romantic the aspirations of those who believe that as soon as a ‘good’ president takes over, we will be standing with one foot in the EU. None of them says, for some reason, that we will have to go through a very protracted procedure of coordinating not only our laws but also our living standards and ideas of freedom and democracy.”

“The same applies to NATO. This privileged politico-military club also has a certain set of requirements and ideas of not only civilian but also purely military democracy. For instance, our troops, still living in the spirit of the Soviet barracks, do not stand an earthly chance of being integrated into NATO until our rank-and-file soldiers get the same treatment as their NATO counterparts do. NATO does not know what hazing is. NATO cannot fancy an officer manhandling a soldier. Instead, NATO does have such lofty standards as democratic freedoms inside military units, when soldiers can visit their parents on weekends, have beer in the barracks, openly express their opinion, etc. In other words, NATO is not only a code of laws but also a way of life. This is why we must bring our lifestyle into line with that of the EU and NATO. I think if the new Ukrainian leadership manages to sow European values in the Ukrainian soil, this will signal the beginning of Ukraine’s entry into Europe.”

Olena MEDVEDIEVA, chief, International Relations Department, Odesa Regional Institute of Public Administration of the Ukrainian Academy of Public Administration sponsored by the President of Ukraine:

“We have no right to make the president alone shoulder this awesome responsibility. Besides, it is more than just signing some documents. It is necessary that all Ukrainian citizens take part in reforming this country and developing democracy. EU membership means ensuring a quality of life on the level of world standards. Unfortunately, we ask ourselves a childish question: will or will they not allow us into the EU? Every individual must identify his/her own role in national development, construction of a sound material and technical basis, improvement of the living conditions, and, hence, in the process of integration. Our institute has been studying, for several years on end, foreign experience of state-building and implementing joint programs together with our US and Polish counterparts. In particular, the USAID-funded project Promoting Democratic Changes in Ukraine by Enhancing the Role of Local Government, under which groups of Ukrainian local self-government executives studied the experience of Poland. The latter has National Development Agencies in the largest cities, intended to involve individuals in European integration by awarding them target-oriented international and national grants. Ukraine also needs this kind of program.”

Serhiy BILOSHYTSKY, head, Department of Liberal Arts and Social Studies, Khmelnytsky branch of the Interregional Academy of Staff Management:

“I have to make an observation. For over our state’s leadership has been touting its intention to reinforce Ukraine’s integration into the EU and NATO. In this period, diplomats have carried out dozens of missions, the media and government officials have been indefatigably describing the virtues of Euro-Atlanticism, and opinion poll agencies have been monitoring the grassroots popularity of a pro-Western course. Quite a lot has been done to accumulate and channel societal energy into implementing a grandiose project so that we ourselves and the West understand that we must stand on the same side of the barricades in a new world order. However, the public at large views this campaign as a squabble of the poor over a place at the feeding trough which must be filled regularly and, for some reason, free of charge by grateful affluent neighbors.

“Taking into account our people’s traditional penchant for creating myths and simplifying the most complicated problems, this rationalization of our European aspiration can be considered sufficient to manipulate present-day public consciousness. Yet, fate can soon play a joke on the Ukrainians — for example, when they suddenly come to face the problems that the process of European integration will inevitably put up. I strongly doubt that most of today’s Euro-optimists are able to forecast seriously, after a sober assessment, the course, the pluses and minuses, of Ukraine’s entry into the Euro-Atlantic system.

“At the same time, skeptics fear that joining NATO will only result in a bloated military budget, and the army will turn into a police force continuously engaged in international and domestic antiterrorist operations without any guarantees from the alliance to protect Ukraine’s security and national interests. In their opinion, the national economy, especially agriculture, may crumble under the tough EU practices of protectionism and quota-setting. Job-seeking migration will be restricted, while social problems will remain a preserve of the state that will have lost much of its sovereignty. If you add to this the likely loss of sales markets in Eurasia and Russia’s increased military buildup on Ukraine’s eastern borders, the rosy prospects of European integration may dim in the eyes of ordinary Ukrainians.

“Therefore, the No. 1 task of the new president, who will dare to take such crucial foreign political steps, will be mobilizing the nation’s scientific and social potential for the sake of an honest and serious debate on the prospects of Ukraine’s entry into the EU and NATO. Ukrainian citizens must familiarize themselves with and discuss the analytical reports of this country’s leading research centers about simulating the possible scenarios of relations between Ukraine and the chief subjects of today’s international politics. Only then will foreign policy help address the internal political problems of Ukrainian society. Otherwise, the ruling elite (in fact, a longtime part of the Western world) will again force a conservative and, at the same time, credulous society to take a high-priced approach to a new utopia.”

Ivan HRABAR, first pro-rector, Zhytomyr State Technological University; Doctor of Sciences (Engineering); chairman, Derzhava regional non-governmental organization:

“My prescription is very simple. The president, every elected deputy of any level, and every citizen of Ukraine must do their utmost for our country to become a democratic law-governed state and have equal starting opportunities for every individual. That’s all. No need to buy the current government’s and opposition’s votes during the elections. No need to reinvent the bicycle: democratic institutions and mechanisms are common knowledge. Figuratively speaking, I am not discovering America here. All you have to do is go to France, Germany, or Britain and see the way these institutions work. And if we become a democratic state, it will make no much difference to me, a citizen of this state, whether or not Europe will take us in. For there will be self-sufficient conditions for us to live better. Why are we dreaming of Europe? We think Europe will share its treasures with us. I do not think it will, I think these are naive hopes. We must win these treasures by ourselves. But, to do so, we must first of all create the conditions available in any democratic state. And I am convinced it is the future president’s sacred duty to follow this unavoidable path. The future president himself, as well as every other citizen, will be interested in this. A system should have a kind of feedback. Given the latter, the system is self-sufficient and will develop. But when a system has only the administrative resource instead of feedback, it is inevitably doomed to degeneration and self-destruction. We must do all this by ourselves. Europe will neither feed us nor establish democracy for us.”