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UKRAINE: EURASIAN INTEGRATION OR EUROPEAN CHOICE?
Yaroslav ZHALILO
Yaroslav Zhalilo, Ph.D. (Econ.), President, Anti-Crisis Research Center (Kiev, Ukraine)
Eurochoice without Eurostrategy
The strategic goal of creating prerequisites for Ukraine’s integration into the European Union, clearly formulated in the presidential address to the Verkhovna Rada as the country’s “European Choice” (2002), quickly captured the attention of politicians and political analysts in the republic. Unfortunately, as often happens, extensive use of European phraseology does not necessarily mean a deep understanding of the mechanisms that can serve to accomplish this ambitious task. The discrepancies between Ukraine’s European ambitions and its European potentialities have also been clearly demonstrated by the situation around its projected entry into a Common Economic Space (CES) with the Russian Federation, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
In many cases, including speeches by high-ranking politicians, one will find an obvious shift in concept. In speaking of a Eurointegration strategy, high government officials have been trying to prove, first and foremost, Ukraine’s desire to integrate with Europe. Such an approach is totally incorrect. A country wishing to become part of the common European space must first demonstrate its ability to comply with the rules and standards operating within that space so as not to upset the balance in its economic development but, on the contrary, to become a factor helping to maintain its socioeconomic stability. Such a country has to convince its potential partners that it intends to join the EU not as an applicant for assistance, but as a country with a stable economy which will open before a united Europe new prospects of socioeconomic, political and humanitarian development and will provide it with an additional competitive advantage.
In this connection, Ukraine must demonstrate its ability to ensure, through its own efforts, sociopolitical and economic stability in the country, high rates of economic growth and effective restructuring of the national economy. Incidentally, this is clearly stated in the text of…………………
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