Yuri Bender writes: "Foreign visitors, numbering up to a million during Euro 2012, appear to have been left with an overwhelmingly positive impression of tournament co-host Ukraine. But international financial institutions look likely to need more convincing before they re-ignite their once intimate relationship with the developing nation".
Despite the inflow of badly needed tourist dollars and cheery mood during the Euro 2012 games, not all is rosy in Ukraine, where President Viktor Yanukovych stands accused of persecuting political rivals through politically motivated show trials.
According to the Financial Times report, Ukraine’s largest financial investor, the EBRD, has committed €7.5bn to the country since 1992, invested across 294 projects, including badly needed pre-tournament upgrades of transport in host cities Kyiv and Lviv. Yet both the EBRD and IMF are calling for major political and legal reform if they are once more to step up commitments.
Two things that are non-negotiable are the upholding of rule of law and introduction of an independent judiciary, according to the report. “We would also like to see a decrease of state-led bureaucratic pressure on businesses,” the Financial Times quotes Anton Usov, an EBRD spokesperson, as saying.
