Eastern Partnership: a promising initiative

“Polish Market”, # 8 (156) special edition 2009

"Ukraine will be supporting the Eastern Partnership plan and taking part in its implementation as long as it is consistent with our national interests and is conducive to Ukraine's integration with the European Union," OLEXANDER MOTSYK, Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland, says in an exclusive interview for "Polish Market."

Q: August 24 is Ukraine's Independence Day. This date is of utmost importance for the state and people of Ukraine and also for the state and people of Poland. Poland, supported by Sweden, has recently initiated the EU's Eastern Partnership project. What is Ukraine's response to this initiative?

A: First, I would like to stress that we value very highly Poland's consistent support to Ukraine's European and Euroatlantic aspirations, something which has been confirmed by concrete and effective projects and measures. In this context, we consider the Eastern Partnership initiative to be very appropriate and beneficial and we firmly support its implementation. We are satisfied with the outcome of the EU's May 7 summit in Prague, where the Eastern Partnership plan was launched. By taking part in the summit, Ukraine showed its political support for the initiative and readiness to exploit the integration opportunities of the plan in order to achieve the country's strategic goal of becoming a full member of the EU. The summit confirmed Ukraine's leading role in the region, including its role in the future implementation of the Eastern Partnership project.

Conceptually, Eastern Partnership is a very promising plan. Ukraine is ready to spare no effort for the new initiative to become an effective mechanism in practical terms, a mechanism which would help partner states to achieve their goals in relations with the European Union.

It is also important for us that Eastern Partnership is not meant to replace the existing bilateral relations between partner states and the EU but plays a complementary role, I would like to stress that the European Neighbourhood Policy pursued by the EU has in fact limited integration opportunities for such countries as Ukraine and for that reason has been criticised by Kyiv quite often.

Here, I want to make it clear that Ukraine will be supporting the Eastern Partnership plan and taking part in its implementation as long as it is consistent with our national interests and is conducive to Ukraine's integration with the European Union. In this connection, we are particularly interested in implementing a broad programme of institutional expansion, increasing administrative capabilities, creating an integrated system for managing Ukraine's borders in compliance with EU standards, introducing visa-free travel regime, implementing projects in the area of regional development in line with the EU policy to equalise opportunities for regions, and strengthening cooperation in energy security and environmental protection,

Q: In recent years, economic relations between Poland and Ukraine have developed at a stunning pace. Since 2003 merchandise trade between the two countries has almost quadrupled. Importantly, this huge increase took place at a time of Poland's EU entry when the interest of Polish business people was mainly focused on the EU market. Although Polish-Ukrainian trade has dropped this year as a result of the global crisis, previous statistics show a huge potential remained for the development of Polish-Ukrainian economic relations. Do you share this view and think it is possible to get back on the previous track?

A: Economic cooperation is among the most important features of Ukraine's relations with any country in the world. In this context, Poland is no exception. Over the three years since January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2008 Poland moved up from fifth to third place, after Russia and Germany, in the ranking of Ukraine's main trade and economic partners worldwide. According to the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine, the value of Ukrainian-Polish trade increased in 2008 by 53% to almost USD 7 billion. Two years before it amounted to USD 4.5 billion.

For the last three years Polish investment in Ukraine increased by several times and reached almost USD 730 million at the end of 2008, It is noteworthy that Ukrainian investment in Poland has also risen in the past years and at the end of 2008 reached more than USD 1 billion, which represented the largest in­vestment by Ukrainian business in any European country.

Unfortunately, data for the first quarter of 2009 indicate a sharp drop in Ukrainian-Polish trade: by almost 50%. The global crisis has affected every country, though to a different extent. But the time will come when the crisis will be over. This is why the present day must not become a wasted time. A thor­ough analysis should be carried out and immediate steps should be taken to "alt these unfavourable trends, get rid of ineffective economic practices and develop industries for the future. I am convinced that the potential for Polish-Ukrainian economic cooperation is huge and we have to exploit it to the benefit of both nations.

It is important now to continue effective forms of cooperation. I think one of such forms is interregional cooperation, which reflects the development of strategic partnership between our nations. With active support from the Ukrainian Embassy, all Polish provinces have signed agreements on bilateral cooper­ation with Ukrainian oblasts. Many interregional projects of various kind are carried out in Poland and Ukraine. They cover important aspects of Ukrainian-Polish cooperation,

Interregional and cross-border cooperation is also developing as a part of the Good Neighbourly Relations Programme Ukraine-Poland-Belarus. Around 170 :eieral projects worth EUR 12 million were carried out in the past four years, including projects for three Ukrainian oblasts. The projects were aimed at increasing the competitiveness of border regions, efficiency of environmental protection measures, cross-border cooperation, modernisation of infrastructure in border regions, as well as ensuring the security on the EU's Eastern border.

One of the aspects of Ukraine's integration with the European Union is its participation in the European regionalism concept, which involves creating euroregions stretching beyond the national boundaries of two or more countries, Such regions have also been created in Ukraine and there are now six of them. Ukraine and Poland actively cooperate in their euroregions.

The potential of the Bug and Carpathian Euroregions, established respec­tively in 1995 and 1993, offers an opportunity to the respective Ukrainian and Polish regions to work together in the area of trade, agriculture, education, science, culture, tourism, environmental protection, transport and communica­tions, fighting crime and managing natural disasters.

Cooperation of this kind is unceasing and it will be further continued to the benefit of both nations.

Q: Polish-Ukrainian relations have been cemented by the countries' joint hosting of the UEFA Euro 2012 football championship. What is the state of prepa­rations for the event in Ukraine?

A: I would like to point out that the issue of closer cooperation between Ukraine and Poland has become especially topical in the context of the recent decision by the UEFA Executive Committee concerning the host cities for the tournament. So far UEFA has approved four Polish cities as hosts but only one in Ukraine. Three other cities in Ukraine - Donetsk, Kharkiv and Lviv - still need to confirm their readiness to host the tournament. In this sit­uation, we have to work out new mechanisms and directions of cooperation with the Polish side and review our cooperation programmes. This was the purpose of the third meeting of the Ukrainian-Polish Committee for Euro 2012 at the level of Prime Ministers, hosted in Kyiv on July 10, 2009. During the meeting delegations of Ukraine and Poland discussed the state of preparations for the tournament, identified problems and pointed out ways to solve them.

The activity of the Council of Euro 2012 host cities is yet another important mechanism of our bilateral cooperation. This informal body is expected to meet in Wroclaw in September in its new shape, with eight participating cities. Previ­ously, the Council consisted of 12 cities aspiring to become EURO 2012 hosts. The Council's meetings provide an excellent platform to share experience in preparing for Euro 2012 and elaborating joint projects, especially those related to launching direct air connections between the host cities.