By Viktor ZAMYATIN, The Day
Romanian President Emil Constantinescu knows that what must come to the
foreground is trade and economic cooperation. In any case, he said so during
talks with Valery Pustovoitenko. It is good that Mr. Constantinescu is
not so much worried about the life of ethnic Romanians in Ukraine, which
the Romanian press depicts as extremely bad. What is more, he is familiarizing
himself with the problems of Romanians in Chernivtsi along with Leonid
Kuchma.
Trade turnover between Ukraine and Romania has dropped by 20%, last
year showing the lowest level over the past four years, $223 million, it
was stated during the talks. Mr. Constantinescu said the prime minister
of Romania would be instructed to take the situation under his personal
supervision. But no one really knows what this can change. For, first,
Ukraine and Romania are not among the world's richest countries, they do
not have free hard-currency funds or a population with great purchasing
power. Secondly, in spite of all promises, personal supervision, and suchlike,
there is still no solution to the long-standing problem of the Kryvy Rih-based
ore-mining and processing mill, in which Romania invested over $700 million.
No one knows when it will be finally built and commissioned. Nor is there
any tangible progress with the so-called Euroregion projects on the Upper
Prut and Lower Danube. Kyiv has never considered Romania a priority market
(although speeches often state the contrary), and nobody has ever seriously
studied this market's potential for Ukraine. Romania has shown the same
attitude toward Ukraine.
Instead, one can hear rather often that the Romanian minority in Ukraine
has restricted rights. In the city and oblast of Chernivtsi, this minority
has schools, a university department, newspapers, radio and TV broadcasting
time, which the Ukrainian minority in Romania does not have. The exception
is the multinational university agreed upon by the two presidents last
year: it will not be purely Romanian.
The sore point is that young people, who go to study in Romania, mostly
stay there because pay is slightly higher and unemployment lower than in
Bukovyna. Whether or not the relations between Ukraine and Romania will
be good does not even depend on the wishes of presidents or governments.
Poor countries are slow to make friends, but they always have something
to divide: in this case it is the continental shelf and exclusive economic
zones. Before Mr. Constantinescu's visit, neither side ruled out going
to international courts, but both continually say they would like to avoid
this.






