Open for business

Ukraine is open for business and serious about EU membership, the country’s prime minister told a gathering in Brussels last week. Anthony Fletcher reports

Speaking at a conference organised by the EU Ukraine business council, the royal institute for international relations and the mission of Ukraine to the EU, Yulia Tymoshenko said that any ambivalence Ukraine felt for Europe was over. “We are not flirting any more,” she said. “We are serious. All the steps we have taken recently – WTO membership, the negotiation of a free trade agreement with the EU – have the support of Ukrainian citizens.”

Tymoshenko used her speech to underline her government’s pro-business and pro-European agenda. She said that her government’s programme for 2008, which included privatisation and investment opportunities within the context of a future free trade area with the EU, was what Ukraine needed. “Cooperation between the EU and Ukraine is worth bn, while 78 per cent of all foreign investment in Ukraine comes from the EU,” she said. “This is our most proactive relationship. In February, we negotiated the process towards creating a free trade zone.”

It was crucial, said Tymoshenko, that professionals and not politicians were tasked with developing the economy. “The state is not a good businessman,” she said. “We want a prosperous country that attracts foreign investment.”

To make Ukraine more predictable – and attractive to business – Ukraine also needed to institute root-and-branch constitutional reform. “We have to build, now and forever, a constitution that harmonises the branches of power. We need to see the birth of a real judiciary. The majority in parliament and the majority of citizens all back this. We have waited long enough.”

After indicating the direction she would like to take Ukraine, Tymoshenko outlined a few of the obstacles that remain in the way. Bureaucrats, she said would not want to lose power, and a “huge tsunami of counteraction” was inevitable. But she vowed to fight vested interests and ensure that results would be visible. Inherent instability was another issue. “During 17 years of independence, the average term of government has been ten months,” she said. “But we are confident we can unite democratically.”

Tymoshenko also addressed lingering European concerns that Ukraine remained within Russia’s sphere of influence and would one day have to choose between its eastern and western neighbours. “This is an inadequate question,” Tymoshenko responded. “We can build a good relationship with all our neighbours; we don’t have to choose between them.

“We also respect the EU’s decision to digest the current enlargement process. We understand that all this will take time. But that doesn’t mean we’ll stop pursuing closer relations. Membership of the EU is not a one-process event, but an ongoing process. Ukraine is an organic integral part of Europe, it is a European country. Ukraine will be a member of the EU.”