European Union diplomats currently describe Ukraine as the biggest foreign policy “challenge” of the day.
Last week, Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Radoslaw Sikorski, the German and Polish foreign ministers, wrote to their colleagues to warn of “destabilising effects” of potential developments in Ukraine’s “external relations”.
“Negative developments in Ukraine could have wide ranging consequences,” they wrote.
Ukraine is becoming the main location of a strategic battle between Russian and the EU over the country’s future as an Eastern or Western facing country.
Following the Georgian war last year, the Ukraine has complained that Russia is systematically issuing Russian passports to Ukrainian citizens living in Crimea.
A document recently circulated by German diplomats warns that the Crimea issue could lead to “a serious deterioration of relations” between Russia and Ukraine.
Berlin has suggested “raising the issue of Crimea with Ukraine in a more systematic way” with the goal of “strengthening ‘European’ identity in Crimea, fostering ties with Europe and the West”.
But there is a problem.
The EU is meddling without offering the Ukraine anything. The EU as a more-or-less cynical diplomatic bloc of officialdom is certainly not being a good European in the internationalist sense.
Ukraine is seen as health and safety, stability problem not as country whose peoples might see themselves as European.
Last night, just before the substance-light “Eastern Partnership” summit in Prague on Thurs, the EU retreated from cementing a firm alliance with countries such as Ukraine because of fears of a domestic popular backlash against migration from the east.
The term “European countries”, to refer to the six former Soviet countries, was dropped from draft texts to avoid any hint that it would imply future EU membership and migration rights.
The EU ambassadors also watered down commitments to “visa liberalisation”, allowing people from the region greater work and business access to European countries.
EU visa liberalisation, allowing more Ukrainians, including people from the Crimea, to work in Europe could play a vital role in taking tension out of the region by offering people something new.
Russia offers passports, the EU won’t even ease up on visas.
Germany and the Netherlands forced changes to the summit communiqué because they are running scared of popular opposition to immigration.
It is a political, public argument Europe’s elites are not prepared to have.
Why should Ukraine or its peoples look to the West and Europe when they are regarded as a threat, not as fellow Europeans?
Without giving Ukrainians a real prospect of being European, particularly via the freedoms of travel and work, the EU will end up destabilising the region further.
#1 by Robert on May 7, 2009 - 8:25 pm
Thank you for support. However, it seams the case of Ukraine is more complicated. You are right, clear majority of Ukrainians identify themselves as Europeans. For this reason, we do not have any other choice as to make our country European. And it does not matter whether there will be any incentives in the EaP. The volume of incentives may change only speed of reforms. When you adduce an argument that Ukraine will participate in the EaP only under condition of incentives, you deny its European identity.
The next point. It looked like a diplomatic stunt to try identify all the 6 countries as European. The EU policy documents on the EaP say about “eastern European countries” and “Caucasus countries”. Anyway, I believe the very discussion on the European identity of Ukraine is a propaganda trick to influence European public opinion. If Ukraine is not European country, how could we understand the words in the EU-Ukraine Summit conclusions (Paris, September 2008) that “Ukraine as a European country shares a common history and common values with the countries of the European Union”?
#2 by al on May 8, 2009 - 3:48 am
The Ukraine never had a chance. They’ve once again been forced to choose between two nascent empires that are concerned only with their own hegemony—and even that choice is being denied them, never mind the option of being actually independent (i.e. Ukranian, never mind “European” or part of the new Russian Empire).
In August 2008, Stratfor indicated an agreement between Germany and Russia that might be the equivalent of a “new Molotov-Ribbentrop pact”. The current European attitude towards the Ukraine and Eastern Europe would be some of its bitter fruits.
#3 by Paddy on May 8, 2009 - 11:48 am
I understand Ukrainian concerns but now is not really a good time for visa liberalisation. We recognise your independence and offering passports suggests to me that Russia does not. Keep your back to the wall.
#4 by Poll on May 9, 2009 - 11:23 am
Please take a survey about EU and its future. It will require about 5 minutes to finish the poll. More votes from more countries allow me to make more objective conclusions.
http://www.polls4u.com/poll/59
Thank you in advance.
#5 by Al on May 10, 2009 - 4:29 pm
It’s only a matter of time before Russia and all the ex-Soviet states are in a greater EU-rope. Ukrainians may need to exercise a little patience.
#6 by AlexAndrA on May 11, 2009 - 5:47 pm
EU should not play the nul-some game of East-West alignment witj Ukraine. It must instead let Ukrainians understand that until they regulate their problems with Russia either themselves or with the EU support there will be no stable political perspectives for them.
#7 by ingoo on May 13, 2009 - 1:29 pm
here in Ukraine we consider EU more and more rationally. It is now EU we should strive for, but mutual interests in our relations should dominate
EU is a myth, but we requiere smth more stable
#8 by Artem on May 13, 2009 - 1:56 pm
Last fall I visited Bucharest and Sofia. I should say that we, Ukrainians, deserve to be Europeans, at least to be associated as one of European nations regardless of being or not being an EU member-state. We are not inferior to Bulgarians or Romanians in all aspects, including political stability. I don’t want to be misunderstood. I am not talking about some kind of racism. However, I think Ukraine also does not deserve such comparisons from EU officials.
#9 by nicu on May 18, 2009 - 7:35 pm
Artem, the problem is not how Sofia, Bucharest and Kiev look like. Indeed Kiev looks as “European”, or maybe more “European” than Sofia and Bucharest. The issue is that of institutions and democratic norms. so the question is how many traffic policemen extort bribes in Romania/Bulgaria vs Ukraine? the same goes for customs officers. How free is the media, and how functional the courts.
if you go beyond a supeficial comparison between Ukraine and the most corrupt EU member states – you would notice that the scale of corruption and state dysfunctionality is much smaller in Bulgaria and Romania, compared to Ukraine and most other post-Soviet states. Unfortunately for Ukraine and the EU alike.
#10 by Marek on May 29, 2009 - 2:25 pm
Freedom to work in the UE is not the main problem. The main problem is freedom to travel to the EU for tourism or education without going through the completely needless, bureaucratic and in many cases humiliating process of applying for visa. There are many people in Ukraine who are interested in travelling to Europe as temporary visitors – contributing to the local economy, establishing contacts between the EU and Ukraine etc. The EU has nothing to offer to those categories of Ukrainians – even if perfectly acceptable from the immigration point of view and with a proven record of several trouble-free visits, in almost every case they still have to apply for a new visa for any single visit to the EU.
First step to be recommended (with many advantages to the EU as well) should be a selective, targeted liberalisation of visa rules. Any Ukrainian with a proven record of several trouble-free visits or with a desirable background (serious job, reasonable financial situation), including students with good job perspectives, should be given a possibility to obtain a long-term multiple entry Schengen visa. An example to follow are the U.S. which routinely issue 10-years visas for those cathegories of applicants. Political reasons are important, but for the sake of our own economy we should avoid the situation in which an Ukrainian tourists decides not to spend a weekend in say Barcelona because of red tape involved in getting a visa.
Through the needlessly restricive visa policy EU is losing a lot of money and much political clout. It’s high time for a comprehensive review of Schengen visa rules.
#11 by al on June 2, 2009 - 9:02 am
No chance of that. Putin basically declared last week (at time of writing) that the Ukraine is Russia’s and that everyone else must keep “hands off”. Rhetoric like “little Russia” dug up from the past was used to embellish that stance.Remember, Putin said in the past that the biggest disaster of the 20th Century was the fall of the Soviet Union. He’s going to do anything to bring back the Russian Empire.
#12 by alex on May 11, 2010 - 10:27 pm
to Bruno (Waterfield)
I see the author publishes many articles ranging from conservative to extremist , but I have a question Bruno is not a English/Brithish name , so he is not a true Brit ! What about looking a little to his ancestry that may not make him a true Briton under his definition of the term ! Europe but not European Union is a lie actually is the same thing the same objective and common values !