You're reading: Polish president offers support for Ukraine EU entry; says could take a decade

WARSAW, Poland (AP) – Poland’s support for Ukraine’s goal to join the European Union is part of a long-term effort that could show results in a decade, Poland’s President Aleksander Kwasniewski said April 11.

Kwasniewski maintained his country’s push for Ukraine’s EU entry, calling on Europe to be more active in readying the country for an EU bid and saying that the growing closeness between Ukraine and the west should pave the way.

“Poland has extended and still extends support for Ukraine’s European aspirations, especially concerning the opening of talks with the EU,” Kwasniewski told reporters following a meeting with Ukraine’s President Viktor Yushchenko.

“What has happened now – the friendly relations between Ukraine and the EU – should bring membership in the EU in the time frame of 10 to 20 years,” he said.

Yushchenko is in Warsaw on a two-day visit to discuss economic and political cooperation, and to thank Kwasniewski for helping mediate a democratic solution to Ukraine’s disputed presidential elections last fall. Yushchenko beat his Moscow-backed competitor in a revote.

Ukraine “remembers everything that the Polish side and President Kwasniewski did at the time of Ukraine’s greatest political crisis in recent years,” he said. Poland helped shape Ukraine’s image as “a modern and democratic nation,” he said.

Warsaw has been consistently in favor of Ukraine’s EU membership, but the EU has not talked about beginning negotiations yet. Poland and nine other mostly former communist nations joined the EU last May.

Poland has been by far the country’s strongest advocate in the EU, said Valeriy Chaly, an analyst at the Razumkov Center in Kyiv.

“Today Poland is Ukraine’s only strategic partner,” he told The Associated Press.

Kwasniewski also promised to back Kyiv’s efforts to have the EU ease visa requirements for Ukrainian students, scientist and doctors. Yushchenko has been pushing for reforms in recent meetings with European leaders.

The countries will also work to simplify their border procedures, to cut down the massive waiting times for trucks driving between the two nations, the leaders said.

The talks also included the long-proposed extension of a Ukrainian pipeline into Poland to bring Caspian Sea oil to Europe. Poland sees Caspian Sea oil imports as a chance to limit its dependence on Moscow for energy sources.

Yushchenko said he would discuss steps to speed up the project during his talks with Prime Minister Marek Belka later April 11. He plans a meeting with the United States, Kazakhstan and Poland on the project, but gave no date.

On April 12, Yushchenko will meet with the students of Warsaw University and will travel to the southeastern village of Mlyny to visit the grave of Ukrainian poet Mykhailo Verbytski, author of the country’s national anthem.