The eighth conference in Yalta, organized by YES (Yalta European Strategy), has passed into history. Remembering its timid beginnings I was impressed by the momentum and the development of this project. It’s not just about the quantity and quality of people that are involved in the discussions, but also about its unique format and climate. In Yalta the fact of being a key speaker, a speaker or even a listener doesn’t really matter, because we often change roles. It is therefore clear that the quality of regular participants is comparable to the quality of the speakers. Of course, the presence of prominent, award-winning personalities creates a rather special atmosphere.
So it was this year. We listened with great attention to the President Simon Peres, to the president Viktor Yanukovych, as well as to the Nobel Prize Winner in Economics Paul Krugman, who tried, although not entirely convincingly, to show that there is an idea of pulling Europe and the world out of this crisis.
The crisis dominated discussions in Yalta, and it must be said clearly that after two full days of searching for the answer to the question “How to get out of that situation?” it turned out that there is only one conclusion. This is not a crisis of the economy, but of the financial markets and those who have made mischief should propose something... but, honestly saying, this proposal doesn’t exist today.
The conference hall during the meetings was actually full all the time and that is the best proof that the discussions and presentations were interesting. As you can imagine we couldn’t avoid talking about the internal situation of Ukraine’s economy, but also politics. Among the often raised issues figured Yulia Tymoshenko’s court case. All discussants agreed on the number of truths/facts. Firstly, we cannot intervene in the Ukrainian legislation’s system. Secondly, it is not quite obvious for everyone that the decisions taken during active political career may be subject to criminal penalties.
Well, last issue, though no less important, which I had the opportunity to mention personally in Yalta: Yulia Tymoshenko, who is in jail, is a real burden for the final phase of Ukrainian negotiations with the European Union. Her presence in the prison does not help us. If she was not there, of course, there would be further problems, but not so numerous. I am afraid that her case, and everything what happens around the Ukrainian court current actions, may dominate this extremely important, and – in the perspective – joyful moment, which is the historic signing of an Association Agreement with Ukraine.
President Yanukovych made a very clear comment on that: he doesn’t want to intervene in the court affairs but there is a chance that the undertaken legislative initiative will meet the expectations of the European public opinion and, I believe, of the part of Ukrainian public opinion too. It should be a win-win situation.
