No Special Exceptions For Ukraine

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.