During the political debate initiated by the Yevhen Kushnariov Foundation for Democracy Initiatives Support that took place last week in Kharkiv, former French Ambassador to Ukraine Philippe de Suremain shared a thought that Europe “needs a soul.” Political analysts and experts from different countries participated in the conference “Ukraine-EU: post-crisis trends of Euro Integration,” at which the inevitable “re-design” of Europe and place of Ukraine in it were discussed.
“Ukraine is certainly a European state for us,” noted de Suremain. “Just like Switzerland or France. We expect that Ukraine will become our partner, but it is also important for us to know what Ukrainians themselves expect from entering the EU.”
And as the poll results show, in first turn they expect additional financial resources and visa-free access to the EU. This information was shared by deputy director general of the Ukrainian Centre for Economic and Political Studies, Valerii Chaly. According to him, more and more citizens approve of European-oriented choice of Ukraine.
In its turn, Europe hopes Ukraine will share the democratic values, because “there can be no mutual relations between Ukraine and the EU without this,” says policy analyst, Head of Department of Strategic Affairs, French Ministry of Defence, Karina Stachetti. Especially, persecution of opposition leaders is absolutely inadmissible in her opinion.
It is obvious that though the initialing of Ukraine-EU Association Agreement is a matter that will be resolved in future, our country needs to clearly picture its place in the European structure. Director of the Ukrainian Institute of Global Strategies, Vadym Karasiov sees Ukraine as Europe’s “industrial workshop.” “Now Ukraine is present in the world as the export and import trade country,” says the analyst. “We import gas on one side, while on the other, we export grain, sunflower products, chemical products, metal, all those are products with low surplus value. We need to fit into the global industrial chains and do everything for the value to be created in Ukraine. Today Ukraine is the cast iron shop of the world, but it should become the industrial workshop of Europe. We need to finally decide where to drop the anchor.”
“Ukraine is on its way to integration into Europe,” says the president of the Yevhen Kushnariov Foundation for Democracy Initiatives Support, Tetiana Kahanovska. “But the choice should be made by common Ukrainians, and not by politicians. I hope that such events as this debate will help them.”
