April 28, 2005, 15:02 Opinions

Ukrainian choice of Europe

Igor Ivanov George Bush called for the immediate opening of the doors of NATO and the European Union to Ukraine. If this call is heeded, Ukraine will be able to travel in a matter of months a path that takes other countries decades: for example, Turkey, a member of NATO, has been seeking EU membership for several decades and, under the best circumstances, will become a member of the European Union in 2014.

The European Union, however, takes a more cautious position, offering Ukraine a “new neighborhood” plan that includes granting Ukraine full access to the single intra-European market, as well as an associative partnership regime in matters of foreign and security policy. The Ukrainian authorities, of course, hope for more, but the facts indicate that the admission of this country to the EU in the foreseeable future threatens a catastrophic decline in the internal standards of the European Union .

Today, Ukraine is not much different from other CIS republics in terms of its economic and political infrastructure. And the prospects for its rapid improvement are supported by little other than the declarations of the orange winners.

The state respects the institution of private property.

The Ukrainian authorities will force the owners of a number of enterprises that were privatized at the “wrong” price to pay up to the “real cost of the object.” “We will offer a couple of dozen enterprises that were privatized in a closed, non-competitive way to make an additional payment up to the real cost of the object,” Ukrainian Economy Minister Sergei Terekhin said on Wednesday. If the company pays, Terekhin will give them a “safe conduct letter for life.” If not, the company will be put up for competition, in which the current owners will be invited to participate. According to the Minister of Economy, thus, the main thing for Ukraine is “to restore economic justice” - at the expense, of course, of private owners.

The authorities guard the principles of a market economy and strictly adhere to the rules of free trade.

The problem of rising gasoline prices is one way or another facing many countries. Various ways have been found to combat this problem: persecution of traders by antimonopoly authorities, excise and customs regulation, strengthening of state-owned companies, balance sheet tasks, and finally, calling oil workers to the carpet.

The new Ukraine has found a more effective way. On April 14, the Ministry of Economy issued an order to reduce the cost of gasoline: the price of A-95 should fall to 2.99 hryvnia per liter ($0.56) from the current 3.30–3.35 hryvnia per liter ($0.62–0.63) and so on. As a result, gas station networks of a number of oil companies stopped dispensing petroleum products, declaring that the tariffs set by the Ministry of Economy were unprofitable. The increase in prices for petroleum products, according to them, was due to a sharp, 54% since the beginning of the year, increase in the cost of oil imported to Ukraine; in addition, tariffs for transporting oil and petroleum products by rail also increased.

The monetary policy of the national bank is predictable.

<1>Previously, Ukraine, at least, could boast of relative macroeconomic stability (which, by the way, is a mandatory requirement for EU candidates). Under the new government, the hryvnia exchange rate rose so rapidly against the dollar that even Viktor Yushchenko described the revaluation as “a gross invasion of one’s wallet at night.” By the way, the budget committee of the Ukrainian parliament promised to “deal with exchange offices that underestimate the exchange rate.”

The ruling group does not put pressure on the opposition.

This is probably a mere coincidence, but the leaders of regions opposed to the current government lost their positions. Many officials who belonged to the losing party are facing criminal prosecution. Under pressure from the authorities and its sponsors: the main shareholder of Viktor Yanukovych , Rinat Akhmetov, complains that inspections have not stopped at the enterprises he owns for months.

Ukrainians are part of the pan-European labor market.

It is already known today what will happen when Ukrainian citizens receive the right to visa-free entry into the EU. Horror stories about hundreds of thousands of migrants flooding Europe, ready to do any job for pennies, with which they frighten the Western public, will come true.

The German government decided to encourage the freedom-loving Ukrainian people and simplified the procedure for obtaining visas. As a result, about 300 thousand people received entry documents, who indicated “inspection of the Cologne Cathedral” as the purpose of the visit. German oppositionists claim that in fact the majority of them were illegal guest workers, including prostitutes.

Nevertheless, ideologically and politically, the issue of Ukraine’s accession, albeit not immediate, to the European Union has been resolved.

It is not surprising that Georgian State Minister for Economic and Structural Reforms Kakha Bendukidze already doubts that joining the European Union is an absolute priority for his country. The ex-oligarch, in particular, fears that the EU may mutate into the Union of Soviet European Socialist Republics. These fears are not unfounded. The erosion of technological standards and a focus on political conjuncture when deciding the speed of integration of a country into a united Europe can only increase this danger.