Ukraine’s main achievement as a result of Viktor Yushchenko’s participation in the annual economic forum at Krynica, Poland, was that Polish Prime Minister, Jerzy Buzek, confirmed that Warsaw opposes Russia building a new gas pipeline across Polish territory, bypassing Ukraine. This followed the Russian government’s optimistic claims that chances to lay this kind of pipeline are quite high. Meanwhile, we still do not know the reaction of Ruhrgas and Gaz de France, for whom stable earnings from the Russian gas are of far greater interest than the strategic partnership between Poland and Ukraine. We will only be able to speak about a diplomatic victory when Warsaw manages to stand up to the pressure of not only Moscow but also Berlin and Paris, in whose European Union company it plans to find itself in a few years. Thus all we have left to do is follow Moscow’s example and say that chances still remain, as well as speak about the Polish experience of European integration.
According to Premier Yushchenko, Kyiv is trying to take advantage of this experience as best as it can. Warsaw seems to believe this.
So much has been said about Ukraine’s intentions to integrate with European structures that such statements will hardly arouse anyone’s interest, let alone surprise. Meanwhile, Mr. Yushchenko, addressing representatives of the Eastern and Central European political and business elites at the Krynica forum, spoke not so much about original aspirations as certain achievements. “Ukraine has consciously made its choice in favor of European integration and intends to become an associate member of the European Union as early as in the next few years,” the prime minister said. Then Yushchenko named the achievements which ought to testify to “the Ukrainian state’s serious intent to become an EU member in the future.” He announced, in particular, that this year Ukraine’s gross domestic product and industrial output have registered a 5% and 11% increase respectively over the same period of last year. However, he did not say that the industrial output growth is still far from being a tendency and that the Ukrainian per capita GDP is almost twenty times below the average EU index and several times lower than that of most neighboring countries. It is also too early to say that Ukraine’s budget is truly balanced and being implemented correctly. “Is this not a sign that we are moving in the right direction?” Mr. Yushchenko summed up. The Ukrainian premier called all this “a chain of European economic standards” his government has managed to achieve. A skeptic would say that European Union countries must be living a very hard life, having the standards that Ukraine has.
However, the forum participants were quite satisfied with Mr. Yushchenko’s speech and later voted him man of the year among politicians in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
