When it comes to Ukraine, the European Union operates on the principle of "more for more" -- meaning that the more democratic reforms that Ukraine undertakes, the more financial aid and other benefits -- such as visa-free travel-- the EU will give to Ukrainians.
By that standard, the EU has been giving “less for less” in the last two years and even “nothing for nothing” in some areas.
Take visa-free travel.
Ambassador Jan Tombinski, the EU’s representative to Ukraine since 2012, noted in a March 16 interview with the Kyiv Post that the basic conditions for visa-free travel were agreed to by both sides six years ago.
The ‘last mile’
Yet Ukraine is still limping along on the “last mile,” as Tombinski puts it, to complete requirements. After trying to pull a fast one by adopting a weak law on public disclosure of officials’ income and assets, President Petro Poroshenko and parliament had to re-do it this month after pressure from the EU and Ukrainian civil society.
That done, Ukraine is now in the process of getting the board members in place to finally start the National Commission for the Prevention of Corruption — an agency to monitor financial disclosures of public officials.
Once that agency starts working, the European Commission, European Parliament and finally the 28 EU member states will decide on whether to approve 90-day, visa-free travel for Ukrainians.
In other words, Ukrainians will need visas to travel to the EU for the foreseeable future.
“The agency is not yet up and running,” Tombinski said. “I will not speculate on dates.”
The sad irony, Tombinski said, is that the Ukrainian leaders who have no trouble getting visas to the EU are the ones stalling the process for the rest of Ukrainians.
EU embrace of Turkey
The EU, known for moving slowly and bureaucratically, can move quickly when it wants to in ways that raise questions about its commitment to democratic values.
To stop the flow of migrants from Syria and other places to Europe through Turkey, the EU quickly put together a $6 billion aid package to Turkey, dropped visa requirements starting in June and agreed to re-start talks about Turkey’s accession to the EU – a process that has been ongoing since 1959. Skeptics believe the EU will never accept Turkey as a member because it is a Muslim, non-white country.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is giving the EU other reasons to reject Turkey’s member as he rolls back democratic freedoms and, in the view of his critics, is becoming a dictator.
Still, the EU needs Turkey’s help in stopping refugees, so the 28-nation bloc is ready to bargain.
Tombinski begged off discussion of EU-Turkey relations, saying he didn’t know the details of the agreement but allowed that the EU “defends well its own interests.”
Despite the criticism of the EU — and the movement by some countries such as the United Kingdom to consider withdrawing — Tombinski remains a big believer in its strength. He noted that, after the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, the EU transformed itself into a stronger institution. “We were paying a huge price for being too mild in the implementation of rules, which people in Ukraine should not forget,” Tombinski said.
“Every crisis triggers new responses and more integration,” Tombinski said, a testimony to the EU’s ability to change and meet new challenges.
Political crisis, civil service reforms
Other areas where Ukrainian inaction has stalled Western financial assistance are in civil service reform and the current political crisis, in which people don’t know if Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk will be sacked and, if so, who will replace him and what will the makeup of the Cabinet of Ministers be.
The EU doles out €100 million a year in assistance to Ukraine, Tombinski said, but that amount could double if Ukraine would speed up reforms.
Also, there are other amounts of micro-assistance contingent on successful implementation of various laws, including the civil service reform law that takes effect on May 1.
Faced with Ukraine’s jagged path to progress, Tombinski may have the right temperament and patience. He is a married father of 10 children who has served as Poland’s ambassador to several nations, including to the EU for five years, before becoming the EU’s representative to Ukraine four years ago. His term of office ends on Aug. 31.
‘Not about to be frustrated’
The historian also takes the long view.
“I am not about to be frustrated,” Tombinski said. “What happened here over the past four years; was a fantastic exercise…I am rather an optimist. The main drivers of changes are people; people got the feeling to trust yourselves and have a purpose. Without this feeling; nothing happens.”
He said that Ukraine is showing “well settled” fundamentals for its future. “You need people, institutions, laws and time,” Tombinski said. “These four elements are prerequisites for long-lasting change.”
He said “the most effective pressure” on Ukraine’s leaders to change “is the internal pressure, the pressure from citizens,” although the West has a supporting role to play.
“We wish to get to a country in which there is a public interest that prevails and not the different interests of influential people who withdraw assets out of the country for their own purposes,” Tombinski said.
“We impose nothing with unilateral demands on our side,” Tombinski said. “Everything has been agreed upon with our Ukrainian partners.” In the visa-liberalization agreement, all the conditions were known for six years, he said, but Ukraine’s officials failed to act before now.
The demands of the EuroMaidan Revolution, which drove President Viktor Yanukovych from power two years ago, were to end corruption and rebuilt trust between society and government.
That is still the challenge today.
Short-term thinking
“The huge weakness of Ukraine for the past 25 years of independence is the dominant culture of short-termism of tactical moves” rather than long-term strategies, he said.
Some EU assistance is tied up with Ukraine meeting International Monetary Fund conditions tied to budget discipline and progress in free-market reforms.
Some aid hinges on more progress in creating a transparent, competitive energy market through the creation of an independent regulator in the sector.
And some of the EU trade assistance — some €100 million — has been held up for two years until Ukraine meets its commitments in three areas: public administration or civil service reform; changes in the judicial system and decentralization of government.
The EU has taken a keen interest in civil service reform. The new law enacted will take effect on May 1. The main aim is to speed the transition from bloated Soviet bureaucracy to streamlined, transparent and efficient government.
Reducing government
Civil service reform must make a delimitation between what is political level versus what is level of officials — disconnect it from the political level to prevent “ministers from moving all around with thier private armies of officials who tend to protect certain interests of this or other group.”
Government hiring should be merit-based, Tombinski said. Ukraine also needs to reduce its governmental staff — estimated at more than 1 million people, if employees of state-owned enterprises are counted.
“Ukraine has too much administrative capacity with no clear description of tasks,” he said. “The other way to do it is a clear audit of what different structures in administration are doing so that all tasks are covered with less people.”
Another feature is “more transparency through use of e-governance,” including disclosure of incomes and assets of public officials to ensure they are “serving general purposes and not serving private interests,” Tombinski said.
Another part of the question is to increase salaries “to remedy the problem of endemic corruption to the very low salaries,” he said.
Control vs. reform
The West, of course, is waiting to see who will be prime minister and what the new makeup of the Cabinet of Ministers will look like.
“My understanding of discussions is that there is more attention dedicated to who controls what rather than who reforms what,” Tombinski said. “I would prefer to see that reforms are now the best answer to the expectations of the people.” He said Ukrainians are ready to “absorb more shocks and more changes as long as they see a strategy out of crisis. Ukraine has been turning into circles for years and years. The cost to Ukraine has been a huge competitive loss on the international market.”
Kyiv Post chief editor Brian Bonner can be reached at [email protected]
