However, when on Oct. 18 the news broke out that European Commission and European Council cancelled the visit of President Viktor Yanukovych to Brussels, it was different. As my friend said angrily: “Why he considers that he has the right to decide — should we go to Europe or not?”
That referred to the clear deadlock in European Union-Ukraine negotiations on an association agreement, as the EU demanded that former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and other political detainees will be freed and Yanukovych refused to say OK so that members of parliament of his party will support needed changes in the criminal code.
Failure of negotiations will wreck this groundbreaking agreement that was scheduled for signing in December, and should have put Ukraine on track of gradual implementing of EU standards in all policy areas.
My Facebook post “Will any political party bring people to the streets to support European integration or we should organize it ourselves?” was one of many similar reactions that day. Not that we read too much stories on Arab revolutions organized with the help of social media; rather it was emotional reaction to self-absorption of opposition parties and their leaders.
While you could easily find parties in Ukraine promoting their leader, fighting against somebody or something (Yanukovych, Russia, etc.) or for total happiness of everybody, you could not find any that are supporting exact policies or cause. Despite the importance of integration to the European Union, one could not recall any party that clearly puts it as a priority and opposes attempts to restore the Soviet Union in any form. Ukrainian politicians try to satisfy everybody and are afraid of disappointing those who still consider Russia Ukraine’s best friend.
In two days between Oct. 18 and 20 scattered posts in social media turned into small but lively rally near Verkhovna Rada that was organized only via internet, mainly Facebook.
Journalists Yevhen Ikhelzon, Dmytro Krykun and Viktoria Svitlova did magnificent job of turning inert resentment into action. In two weeks Facebook group My – yevropeitsi (We are Europeans) grew to over 1,700 participants (http://www.facebook.com/groups/euinua/).
First rally was followed by the second one on Oct. 26 when group members passed appeal to EU leadership to Miroslav Lajcak, managing director for Russia, eastern neighborhood and the Western Balkans in the EU’s External Action Service, who visited Kyiv that day.
Lajcak was later cited saying that this sign of grassroots support of European integration in very important to the EU. Third rally was planned for November 3 to oppose new election law that could make parliamentary elections next year easily manipulated by the ruling coalition.
Cynics could say that this initiative is not relevant to the majority of Ukrainians, and that it is just for entertainment of highbrow Kyiv intelligentsia. Surveys debunk this. On the same day of October 18 GfK Ukraine conducted nationwide phone survey of 600 mobile phone owners aged over 18 years (85 percent of the Ukrainian population of this age). When asked what Viktor Yanukovych should do — free Tymoshenko to facilitate European integration or resist to pressure from the EU leadership and wait to concessions from Brussels, 47 percent supported first option, 31 percent — the second one, 7 percent proposed their own option and for 15% it was hard to answer this question. Moreover, 58 percent of respondents consider court decision in Tymoshenko case unjust and 50 percent are sure that the president of Ukraine or his administration officials put pressure on the judge in this case.
It means that majority of Ukrainians support opinion of EU leadership on the Tymoshenko case and not the story told by their own government. Numerous polls also show that majority of Ukrainians support Ukraine’s EU membership. When directly asked by GfK Ukraine in April 2010 whether they like this idea, 53 percent of respondents (sample of 1,000 aged over 16) said “yes”, 25 percent said “no” and for 22 percent it was hard to answer this question.
It is important that this movement is not “for Tymoshenko” and “against Yanukovych.”
Personally I never voted for Tymoshenko or her party, and many other members of this group never did as well. Neither it is anti-Russian. For instance, many of posts on the group page are in Russian. That is exactly why this movement is different. We are for values that European Union promotes and for policies that operationalize these values. And we are sure that these policies will make lives of Ukrainians better.
Hlib Vyshlinsky, custom research director, GfK Ukraine, member of Facebook group My – yevropeitsi.
