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International ProgramThe Enlarged EU and Ukraine: New Relations |
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The project is financed by the Stefan Batory Foundation (Warsaw), International Rennaissance Foundation (Kyiv), Open Society Institute (Budapest) and has been supported by the Poland-America-Ukraine Cooperation Initiative (PAUCI), financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). |
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Interview with Natalia YakovenkoDoctor of History, Head of Department of History of Ukraine at the University of "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy" What does "Ukraine's European choice" mean to you?I am sure that this is an only real chance to be saved from that ineradicable inheritance of the "Sovietness" overhanging us like fate, manifesting itself not only in the society's organisational structures but also in the very approaches to potential innovations which have still being grafted onto the post-Soviet world-outlook trunk [stem] and are merging with it imperceptibly. Therefore, all these innovations inevitably undergo mimesis and reduction to quasi-reforms, instead of real reforming. Causes and obstacles of Ukraine's participation in the processes of European integration.The reasons, in other words, a necessity, hardly need commenting, as if Ukraine wishes to keep its genuine sovereignty, not a paper one, it merely has no alternative to European integration. The main impediment, as for me, has still been being lack of political will in our leaders: the European choice is being declared but not realised — as because of fuzziness of our geopolitical vector, so owing to considerations of the moment and irresolution which are concerned with scramble for power; because of engagement in collecting of Russian dividends, as well as owing to conflicts of interests within the pro-European lobby; through the fear to lose the customary privileges provided by administrative hierarchy that has in no way been dismantled yet, and through the mere "Sovietness" of thought, mentioned above, which in this case can be qualified as the fear of any decisive changes. How do you see your country's contribution to the future of Europe; Ukraine's role (real and desirable) in the all-European political, economic and public processes?I think that Ukraine's potential contribution to future of the united Europe is determined by the very geography. Today Ukraine is a geographic bridge between Europe and Asia, and in the long-range outlook, it could become the territory where the main centres of Euro-Asian economic cooperation would be situated: transport through-passages, mediatorial structures, etc. In its turn, this would determine Ukraine's political role as a natural mediator, who would be the most interested in harmonisation of relations between "the West" and "the East". As regards social processes, Ukraine can hardly pretend to possession of any independent voice in the nearest future, as civil society is being in embryo here, and the mechanisms of forming and translation of public opinion are still being underdeveloped; actually, they are not provided with adequate intellectual support enough. The EU's present expansion and its influence upon Ukraine.From the standpoint of Ukraine's pro-European interests, the present enlargement of the European Union will play a negative role, as it demonstratively separates Ukraine from the West, and thereby stimulates it to establish closer contacts with the Euro-Asian Union. The role of the neighbouring countries intending to become the EU members soon (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia), in realisation of the "European choice of Ukraine".These countries' role in realisation of Ukraine's European choice is literally a key one, as without their support (and without their obvious example, after all) we would have hardly succeeded in those though minor but practical changes for the better in our attempts to renew [renovate] many spheres of life in Ukraine. For example, as a University lecturer and a scientist-humanitarian, I can assert that owing to 10 years of close cooperation with our Polish colleagues in those Ukrainian universities which were cultivating such cooperation, we managed to achieve noticeable modernisation of university studies and to educate a completely new generation of young scientists possessing an unprejudiced liberal mode of thought. Ukraine's effective way to European structures: independently or together with Russia?Russia's specific weight is so immense and accelerative that to move "together with Russia" would automatically mean to follow the lead of Russia's political and economic interests. I think that for Ukraine such way can result in a failure of loss of our own interests and our own state identity which has not being completely formed yet, anyway. The problem of visas and migration from Ukraine to the EU.A simplified to the maximum and favourable visa system, I think, is able to soften this barrier, if it cannot be surmounted officially. What would you like to change in the EU's policy as regards Ukraine?I would like to change the very attitude toward Ukraine, which should be counted not in the EU's "neighbours" but in potential candidates to membership in the EU. Of course, lots of requirements separate a potential candidate and a real one, and Ukraine is still being unable to meet these requirements today. But the very attitude toward Ukraine as a potential candidate would contribute to overcoming of uncertainty of reference points in the Ukrainian society and augment the number of adherents of the idea of "European choice" positively, and, therefore, would help to improve reforms and changes in the country. Present state and perspectives of European business in Ukraine and Ukrainian business in Europe.I am unacquainted with this question. What is common and what is different between Ukraine and the "Western culture"? Is Ukraine a part of the Western world?This question implies rather a simplified approach to the problem that is being much more complicated, in fact, from a scientist's critical point of view, as we should take into consideration, first of all, a destructive whirlwind of totalitarianism while speaking of forms of self-organisation of society and political culture; and, on the other hand, there is no univocal definition of the "Western culture", that is, there is no comparative scale that would be "objective". If we conventionally take as a definition of "the West" the Christian cultural inheritance, then Ukraine, as a non-Muslim country, undoubtedly belongs to "the West"; moreover, most of its citizens are being the followers of the "exceptionally Western" churches: the Greek Catholic, the Rome or the Evangelical ones. Reasoning from educational, cultural and artistic traditions, Ukraine's "European choice" amounts to more than four centuries, and it has been never revised. If to take into consideration the level of urbanisation, and, on the whole, the weight of a city and widely interpreted urban culture in the society's life, then it will be easy to coordinate Ukraine with the idea of "the West", too. Eventually, at the everyday level, the Ukrainians have preserved their tolerant attitude toward those whose language or faith is "different", despite isolationism and xenophobia cultivated by totalitarian propaganda. This allowed Ukraine, in contrast to most of other former Soviet republics, to pass the period of disintegration of the USSR without any interethnic and interconfessional conflicts. To my mind, this circumstance also indicates certain "Westernness", that is, rational moderateness of the Ukrainian national mentality. At the same time, the level of civil liability, forms of civil society, deliberate [conscious] handling of mechanisms of democracy, as well as other elements of European political culture which began to form in Ukraine at the end of XIX — the beginning of XX centuries, simultaneously with the European ones, were so radically eradicated at the price of millions of lives of the most active Ukrainian citizens, that today we have to speak of not so their reanimation as of their new re-mastering, starting from a clean sheet. And in this sense, Ukraine can hardly be counted in "the West", though, according to my observations, extremely encouraging processes and transformations are now taking shape among younger people, especially, in the intellectual sphere. Brief Information about the University Of "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy" The UKMA is non-profit autonomous self-governed institution of higher learning. The university's teaching system took the best traditions from Ukrainian education, formed down Copyright © Fundacja Batorego
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