You're reading: Some don’t see benefits of EU deal, say nation isn’t ready for this step

Although the pro-European rallies taking place in and outside of Ukraine are getting lots of media attention, not everyone is on their side.

Many officials, actors, doctors, students and other Ukrainians don’t favor tighter bonds with the European Union.  They will not be found among the crowds on Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the epicenter of the pro-European rallies that began on Nov. 21, hours after the government cancelled plans to sign an association and trade deal with the EU.

“Ukraine will not see any economic benefits from closer ties with the EU.”

“We have to change ourselves first.”

These are the most common reactions among the Euro-skeptics.

Tatyana Melnychenko, 28, a graduate of Kyiv National Economic University who works as a logistics specialist in New York, said that her position is based on economics.

“People want changes and believe that Europe will give them a new opportunity to do so, or will create conditions to develop. Do you believe in it? If so, just take a pen and try to write a list of changes which the association (agreement) suggests,” Melnychenko said.

She said the deal won’t lead to the EU dropping visa requirements for Ukrainians. The 28-nation bloc of democracies also won’t make it easier for Ukrainians to find work in Europe. The association deal, moreover, cancels benefits for farmers.

“Will Ukraine have more work places, new enterprises? No, Europe needs to defend its own manufacturers,” she said.

Angelyna Bakalynskaya, a businesswoman from Kyiv, agreed. “I do not believe in the signing of the association at this stage. I also do not believe that Ukraine needs it. There was a few who tried to estimate the pros and cons,” she said.

A poll by DW-Trend in November, however, found that a majority of Ukrainians want the deal. The Institute of Sociology IFAK conducted a survey of 1,000 people aged 18-65 at the request of the Ukrainian office of Deutsche Welle.  According to the study, 58 percent or Ukrainians support closer integration with the EU, while 49 percent believe that the EU’s main purpose it to provide economic growth.

According to another study conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in November, 39 percent of those polled would prefer EU integration, while 37 percent with the Russian-led Custom Union.
Experts also believe that the EU can bring economic benefits to Ukraine.

“Every country that has signed free trade agreements with the EU in the past has seen economic benefits, even those which much less ambitious and far-reaching agreements than what is being offered to Ukraine,” Jan Tombinski, the EU ambassador to Ukraine wrote in an opinion piece for the Kyiv Post.
Others questioned by the Kyiv Post gave varying reasons for why Ukraine should not integrate with the EU.

“They think, maybe, if we sign the association (agreement) we will become the most European of Europeans?” asked actor Maxim Gruber, 29. Ukrainians have to change their own mentality first, he said, in order to align more closely with Europe. “Let’s begin to recognize ourselves as Europeans. Let’s begin to behave accordingly. The ‘party’ on Maidan will not bring us closer to European values.”

The idea that Ukrainians must first become more European to join the EU is a popular one.

“I don’t like the idea of joining something. It doesn’t matter if it’s the EU or Custom Union,” said 31-year-old Alexey Galchenko. He does not like the Ukrainian herd instinct to find a savior. “Even if it is the EU, I think that we are able to do everything ourselves,” he says.

A society that is unable to persuade its officials to produce institutional changes and to stick to democratic principles has no right to say “we are Europe,” argued Pavlo Zubyuk, 31. Theoretically, he supports the EuroMaidan demonstrations and integration with the EU. But he believes that Ukraine is not ready to sign the landmark association and free trade pacts with it.

“We have to change ourselves, change our country and only then can we go to Europe,” he told the Kyiv Post.

Kyiv Post staff writer MariiaShamota can be reached at [email protected].