President Put Off by Europe

Mr. Kuchma complains that there is a "vicious circle: if one is not an EU associate member one cannot join CEFTA, and if not a CEFTA member, no one will discuss a free trade area with the EU."

With CEFTA the issue is actually simple: free trade has always been understood by the Cabinet as so many privileges for Ukrainian goods and obstacles for those of other producers. Thus, even suggesting Ukraine's participation with its existing excise rates, import licensing, quotas, etc., would be simply ridiculous. Instead, there is an interesting question: What was there to prevent Ukraine from traveling the road from CMEA to the EU, covered by all countries in the region, albeit to varying degrees? Admittance to the EU is generally known to require certain political and economic standards. The latter are achieved by certain government efforts (in fact, the Hungarian President could not help pointing out that access to EU and CEFTA implies "the need to carry out appropriate reforms in Ukraine").

An answer to this question can perhaps be found in Mr. Kuchma's fascinating struggle vs. his political adversaries in upcoming campaign (how can one find time for something like reform while engrossed in such Byzantine maneuvers and counteractions?) and his spectacular shifts in Ukraine's foreign policy course, apparently signifying the absence of a unanimous view on priorities in the President's entourage.

Another important detail is Mr. Kuchma's complaints about the EU, voiced at the official international level and which look, mildly speaking, improper. The more so that in Vienna the Russian Premier (whose country is in very bad shape) behaved with enviable dignity and showed that he was willing to make every effort to join European structures. In a word, the President's fit of pique at the EU hardly added to Ukraine's prestige.

Finally, when Leonid Kuchma was Premier, the Ukrainian Parliament always stood in the way of his economic reforms. When he became President many names were added to the list of those throwing monkey wrenches into his noble works: NBU Governor Viktor Yushchenko who is supposedly to blame for the absence of structural reforms; Russia, because of which Ukraine is suffering an economic crisis; and the European Union because Ukraine is not admitted to it.

Let us see who is left still to be blamed for all our troubles: the Organization of African Unity, Australian Farmers' Association, Mark Twain Fan Club - anyone else? Maybe the Good Lord himself? Well, in their place I would have been proud of such a grand parting of the waters.