Kiev steps up attack on EU ‘neglect’

Date: 15/07/1999

By Simon Taylor

WHEN Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma meets Finnish Premier Paavo Lipponen and Acting Commission President Manuel Marin at next week's EU-Ukraine summit, he will be looking for clear signs that his country's future lies ever closer to the Union.

But if the recent history of relations between the two is any indicator, he may well be disappointed.

While Kuchma has repeatedly stressed his objective of moving nearer to the Union, the EU's policy has been to keep Kiev at arm's length while insisting that the 16-month-old Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) is an adequate mech-anism for managing relations.

This prompted a bitter attack from Kuchma earlier this month, when he accused the EU of failing to do enough to help Ukraine introduce much-needed reforms.

Ukraine's ambassador to the EU Boris Hudyma echoes his president's criticisms of the Union's policy. "The EU wants to preserve the status quo. It does not know what to do with Ukraine," he told European Voice.

Kiev has had to swallow a number of disappointments in recent months as Union governments switched their attention to the Balkan region in the wake of the Kosovo crisis. A planned common EU strategy for Ukraine has been delayed until the end of this year to make way for work on Kosovo.

But Hudyma believes that the Union is making a strategic error in focusing on the Balkans at the expense of his country. "This is a mistake because Ukraine is an important factor in the stability of this part of Europe," he insisted, warning: "We should not wait for another Kosovo to draw attention to Ukraine."

EU officials counter this by complaining of conflicting messages coming from Kiev depending on which way the political wind is blowing. "One day they say they want to do more with Russia, the next day they want to move closer to the EU," said one.

Commission officials also bemoan the fact that despite the PCA, a number of trade disputes between the Union and Ukraine have not been fully resolved. Spats have broken out over a range of issues from television sets and pharmaceuticals to investment incentives for foreign investors.

Commission experts claim that the blame for many of these problems lies with the Ukrainian parliament, the Rada, which repeatedly blocks the president's efforts to improve relations with the Union. But they hope that presidential elections in October will help to break the log-jam in EU-Ukrainian relations.

One clear example of how domestic political tension undermines the relationship is the dispute over a planned 150-million euro loan for Ukraine which has been on hold since last October.

The Union is refusing to release the money until the Rada ratifies the deal setting out the conditions attached to the loan. But Hudyma argues that the cash has already been approved and that putting the issue to the parliament again could stir up political trouble for Kuchma in the run-up to the election.

Progress on an agreement on the closure of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant has also stalled due to a shortage of funds to complete two new atomic units which would replace lost generating capacity, although Kuchma offered a way out of the current impasse recently by suggesting that Ukraine could switch to coal and gas-fired power plants.

In the absence of any serious political will from the EU to draw Ukraine closer into the European fold, Kiev is looking to build stronger ties on a piecemeal basis.

Hudyma believes that a joint EU-Ukraine protocol on telecoms and information technology, which will help Ukraine to bring its legislation into line with Union rules and norms, will be followed by others on science and technology and agreements on nuclear safety and trade in nuclear fuels.

"We should develop relations in different spheres in a way which does not depend on whether the EU wants us as a member or not," argued the ambassador. He also believes it should be possible to make progress in other areas of mutual interest such as the environment and the fight against crime.

At next Friday's (23 July) summit in Kiev, Kuchma will once again underline Ukraine's desire to move towards the Union. In return, he will call for a positive signal from the EU that his country's future does indeed lie in deepening relations with the West.

"We want a political message like those being given to Macedonia and Albania," said Hudyma, referring to the Union's offer of closer ties with the Balkan states through the planned stability pact.

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