Now that Ukraine has market economy status, the next destination points are the WTO and EU, where we won’t be admitted without European rules. Therefore, our ranking bureaucrats have turned to Europe for help and advice on how government services in a market economy country should function.
The project proposed by the European Commission is called Twinning. It is the main institutional instrument of the European Neighborhood Policy. This clever word means nothing more than an exchange of knowledge and experience between Ukrainian and European bureaucrats. Addressing a seminar on twinning, Ian Boag, head of the European Commission Delegation to Ukraine, said that Europeans welcome the reforms proclaimed by President Yushchenko. He added that this benefits not only Ukraine but also Europe, which wants to have a strong neighbor.
Still, this sounds more like a desire to have a strong barrier dividing Europe from Russia and the East. Perhaps it is this, rather than Yushchenko’s reforms, that forced the Europeans to seek the transformation of our bureaucracy into a European-style one, rather than a Soviet-style administration. Ukraine was the first CIS country to be honored by twinning. Until now twinning was used only in the countries that joined the EU in 2004.
However, no one is talking about these motives. Deputy Foreign Minister Anton Buteiko declared that this program confirms Europe’s positive reaction to the changes in Ukraine and refuted any doubts that “Europe is not waiting for us... This will finally lead us to EU membership.” His words were confirmed by Deputy Economy Minister Anatoliy Maksiuta, who said: “Before, we were like pupils, looking at the experts from Europe, who were teaching us what a market is all about, but now we will be working on the level of recommendations and consultations.”
Without a doubt this country has matured from the customary manual management and is awaiting the promised transparent rules, which may be supplied by projects, if not by bureaucrats. In Ukraine they will be implemented by Tymofiy Motrenko, head of Ukraine’s Main Department of the Civil Service. He told The Day that all these projects concern the work of departments that are experiencing problems and are willing to resolve them while upgrading their functional structure. This is true of the Ministry of Finance, which is officially responsible for the budgetary process, and the economics and transport ministries, which are responsible for logistics and transportation security.
So far only four are ready: the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NKRE), Antimonopoly Committee, civil aviation, and state standards. But in five or six years Motrenko believes there will be a good hundred or so. So far, 22 million euros have been allocated for the project, but larger sums are expected. Marco Mazzocchi Alemanni, head of the Twinning Unit, EuropeAid bureau for cooperation, explained the mechanism of implementing such projects to The Day.
“A Ukrainian department that wants to modernize its organization prepares a proposal that Motrenko then studies. Then this project is processed by experts from our organization and distributed to various EU countries, and every country has the right to express a desire to deal with this reform, provided there is an equivalent of this department there. All their projects will be forwarded to Ukraine, where the most suitable project can be selected and work begun on its implementation.” In addition, our bureaucrats will have an opportunity to travel around Europe and acquire knowledge and professional experience.
According to Motrenko, “projects will be developed directly by departments.” Therefore, the bureaucratic vertical has considerably fewer chances to distort them while sending them to the executor. He also says that “both sides are responsible for each project,” and that the European Commission will allocate funds for future projects only after the partial implementation of earlier projects. Mazzocchi Alemanni says that a project will take an average of one or two years to complete. To enhance responsibility, commercial structures will not be involved in the implementation of projects: only bureaucrats will be reforming bureaucrats.
