Since the election of Viktor Yanukovych as president of Ukraine on Feb. 7, the country has been very much back on the agenda in Brussels.
The new president and members of his government have become regular visitors to the Belgian capital.
Contrary to their public image in most European countries as politicians who want to bring the Ukraine closer to Russia once again, the government has repeatedly stressed that its strategic long-term goal remains accession to the European Union.
The fact that Yanukovych’s first foreign visit was to Brussels, not Moscow, was a clear signal of this.
Ukraine will never give up the policy of European integration … Therefore, I personally believe a united Europe is and will be the best response to the challenges of the present day.”
– Viktor Yanukovych, president of Ukraine.
The president was outspoken during an October public meeting in France, where he said: “Ukraine will never give up the policy of European integration … After all, the European idea has become the universal unifying motif for the Ukrainian society. Therefore, I personally believe a united Europe is and will be the best response to the challenges of the present day.”
The previous government repeatedly stressed its engagement to the strategy of European integration.
But during the five years of Viktor Yushchenko as president, and almost three years of Yulia Tymoshenko’s government, not much progress was made.
The constant fights between the government and the president had a disastrously negative effect on the many good intentions of the 2004 Orange Revolution [the peaceful protest that overturned a presidential election rigged for Yanukovych].
The movement was supposed to bring change to Ukraine, including reforms necessary to bring Ukraine closer to integration with the European Union.
It may, therefore, seem understandable that many vers are questioning if this new “pro-Russian” president and his government can succeed where their “pro-Western and pro-European” predecessors were not able to achieve real progress over the past five years.
It is true that Yanukovich and his government have not made the European integration process the sole priority of Ukraine’s foreign policy.
One of the many street demonstrations during the 2004 Orange Revolution. (File photo)
They have also made a great effort to once again normalize relations with their other big neighbor, the Russian Federation.
This was an absolute necessity after the “gas wars” with Russia, which seriously destabilized the economic situation in Ukraine.
But stabilizing relations with Russia was also to the advantage of millions of households in the European Union which were already once threatened with a very cold winter because of these bad relations between Russia and Ukraine.
Instead of depicting the current leadership of Ukraine and their Party of Regions as pro-Russian, it would seem more appropriate to identify them as simply pro-Ukrainian and to support them in their wish to seriously make progress in all aspects of European integration.
Ukraine – like Poland or Romania – will need strong support from its European partners to advance on the path of further integration with the European Union.”
– Adrian Severin is a Romanian member of the center-left Socialist & Democrats in the European parliament.
Ukraine – like Poland or Romania – will need strong support from its European partners to advance on the path of further integration with the European Union. This also means that the Party of Regions and the current government are given a real chance.
The group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament has taken the decision to – as it is described in the memorandum of cooperation signed on Oct. 14 – “further develop and intensify the contacts between our organizations with a view of supporting the Party of the Regions’ ambition to strengthen Ukraine’s integration process towards the European Union and to further reinforcing the Socialists & Democrats parliamentary group’s support for this ambition.”
This memorandum must be considered as an expression of a wish of one of the biggest political groups in the European Parliament to take the responsibility of working together with the biggest party of Ukraine.
This means that we will jointly organize seminars and meetings on topics which are of practical importance to further Ukraine’s integration process towards the European Union; that we will organize meetings and round tables on political cooperation, parliamentary procedures in the European Union and the strengthening of political participation.
This cooperation will certainly be to the benefit of the political work of the Party of Regions, but it will equally be to the benefit of the European Union to help the Party of Regions to be a reliable partner in Ukraine’s European integration process.
This does not mean that the Socialists & Democrats has now welcomed the Party of the Regions as a member of its political family, like the European People’s Party did in 2007, when it included both the Our Ukraine movement of Yushchenko and the Fatherland party of Yulia Tymoshenko as organizations with an observer status in their political movement.
The memorandum is not a declaration of ideological affiliation. Nevertheless, it is hoped that their cooperation will also encourage the Party of Regions to stand up for and to defend the values of social democracy in Ukraine.
This memorandum gives us also the possibility to “create a forum for a frank and open discussion about the political situation in Ukraine and to assist the Party of Regions in their wish to overcome the current situation of party-political confrontation and to establish democratic cohesion in Ukraine, including the strengthening of the democratic institutions and rule of law as well as the further free development of the media,” as the memorandum states.
It is almost shocking to see how some European People’s Party members of the European Parliament uncritically take on board the political slogans from the Ukrainian opposition, thus importing the Ukrainian mud-fighting in the European political arena, instead of trying to establish a democratic political cohesion in Ukraine.
It is now up to the Social & Democrats group in the European Parliament and to the Party of Regions in Ukraine to transform this memorandum for cooperation into effective action to the benefit of Ukraine and to the benefit of the European Union.
Adrian Severin is a Romanian member of the center-left Socialist & Democrats in the European parliament.
