Former Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius has agreed to join Ukraine’s International Advisory Council for Reforms, while several other foreigners have been invited to become its members, Kubilius told the Kyiv Post on April 1.
If officially appointed, he will advise the Ukrainian authorities on government communication, financial stabilization, energy sector reform and other issues. The report follows other appointments of foreigners – including Georgians, Lithuanians and Americans – to the Ukrainian government as part of the nation’s efforts to reform its economy and law enforcement system.
Kubilius said that former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, head of the council for reforms, had invited former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt; German-born Elmar Brok, chairman of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs; Polish-born Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, a member of the European Parliament, and former Slovak Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda.
Swedish economist Andurs Aslund, a senior fellow at the Washington D.C.-based Peterson Institute for International Economics, was also invited. He has previously advised the Ukrainian, Russian and Kyrgyz governments on transition from planned to market economies.
Meriko Kokaya, an assistant to Saakashvili, confirmed that that Saakashvili was in talks with the foreign experts. She said, however, that none of them had been officially appointed so far.
Kubilius, the leader of Lithuania’s Homeland Union center-right party, said that he would share experience on “how to politically implement reform plans and how to persuade the parliamentary coalition.”
“The Cabinet and the presidential team are very strong in terms of their professional qualities but they don’t have much political experience,” he said. “They lack political experience on how to set clear priorities, to implement them easier and facilitate communication both within the government coalition and (between the government and) Ukrainian society and the foreign community.”
Kubilius was prime minister in 1999-2000, when Lithuania suffered from the spillover of Russia’s 1998 financial crisis, and in 2008-2012, when the nation felt the impact of the 2007-2008 global financial crisis. “I served as prime minister twice during deep crises.
Crisis management is my hobby,” he said.
The difference between the two countries is that, unlike Lithuania, Ukraine faces Russia’s military aggression when trying to implement reforms.
“For (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, the main goal is not even to conquer some territories but to use the military conflict to prevent the Ukrainian government from efficiently carrying out necessary reforms,” Kubilius said.
The top priority for Ukraine now is financial stabilization, he said.
“I saw in December that you have a budget deficit of about 13 percent of gross domestic product for 2015,” he said. “It means that, based on our experience, state finances are on the brink of catastrophe. The government must show to international financial markets that it recognizes this problem and knows how to control it.”
The government must cut the deficit, mostly by reducing subsidies in the energy sector, he said. Other priorities include reforming corporate governance at state companies, improving the business climate and cracking down on corruption, Kubilius added.
Other Lithuanians have also been appointed to the Ukrainian government.
Lithuanian investment banker Alvaras Abromavicius was appointed as Ukraine’s economic development and trade minister last December, while former Lithuanian Deputy Economy Minister Adomas Audickas is an advisor to Abromavicius.
Nerijus Udrenas, a former advisor to the Lithuanian president, was invited in October as an expert to assist the implementation of Ukraine’s association agreement with the E.U.
Algirdas Semeta, a former Lithuanian finance minister and the European Union’s former commissioner for taxation, became Ukraine’s business ombudsman in December.
Lithuania’s incumbent president, Dalia Grybauskaite, has been a staunch proponent of Ukraine in its war with Russia. In February Lithuania became one of the first countries to supply non-lethal weapons to Ukraine.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected].
