EU Has Finally Noticed Ukraine’s European Choice

Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma stated after his meeting with Swedish Premier Goran Persson that for the first time in ten years the European Union has given Ukraine some positive signals. Those signals consist of the decision by the EU summit in G Ъ teborg to invite Ukraine for more close cooperation with the European Union. For the first time in all the years of relations between Ukraine and the EU the question was political cooperation in the framework of the European Conference, which had been discussed by Ukrainian diplomats for a long time (without getting a positive response). Such cooperation, which must be continued from the point of view of the EU expansion, “is very important for Europe as well as, let us hope, for Ukraine,” as Persson pointed out at the press conference.

Behind the already habitual phrases by Prime Minister Persson about the strategic importance Ukraine has for the EU, which is soon to become its closest neighbor, and about supporting democratic and market reforms in Ukraine there was nothing concrete for the present. However, his visit was clear evidence that at least now one cannot speak about any diplomatic blockade of Ukraine, which was characteristic for the first half of the year. It was also an evidence that the EU, where Sweden will be in the chair until July 1, is really considering the ways for getting closer with Ukraine. And maybe Persson’s tete- ` a-tetes with Kuchma and Kinakh persuaded him with their declarations of Ukraine’s European choice.

One might say that Sweden during its chairmanship has justified Ukraine’s hopes — the more so that Stockholm had always stood for the closest possible ties between the EU and Ukraine, although at present as a close neighbor, not a future member. The European Union’s call to Ukraine’s neighboring countries — Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania — to have more active their relations with it, which Persson also made public, can also be judged as positive.

In fact, the idea is that the process of mutual rapprochement of Ukraine and the European Union has finally made its headway, and Persson became the first person to make this public.