Belgian paper views foreign minister challenges in leading OSCE
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Written by Nikola
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Sunday, 26 June 2005 |
Text of report "After Moscow, De Gucht also embraces Kiev" on Belgian newspaper De Standaard website.
Kiev: Six months after going down on his knees in Moscow, Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht (Flemish Liberals and Democrats) also expressed his support this week for the European aspirations of the new government in Ukraine - which came about much to Moscow's displeasure. How is all this to be reconciled? Next year Belgium heads the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and that would be a success.
De Gucht was given the red-carpet treatment in Kiev this week. A one-hour reception with President Viktor Yushchenko - still the badly-affected face of democracy in Ukraine - is not given to everybody. So what is our country doing with the new democratic government in Ukraine? Do we support the Ukrainian aspirations for EU membership despite the recent mood against further enlargement of the EU?
For the present Minister De Gucht placed himself in Kiev in the group of EU countries which wish to keep all doors open. Not completely in favour - like the Poles or the Lithuanians - but not wholly critical of enlargement, as bigwigs in, among other places, France, are currently intimating. "Belgium recognizes Ukraine's European aspirations and welcomes Ukraine's European choice," a joint declaration by De Gucht and his counterpart, Borys Tarasyuk, states.
Minister Tarasyuk, a former ambassador in Brussels, said only last week that he was tired of bland promises from EU countries. "I am not becoming pessimistic about our chances of ever joining the EU," Tarasyuk says in a conversation with De Standaard, "but I believe that there is a lack of a conceptual approach among EU politicians. Fortunately, those leaders are now beginning to realize that our EU candidacy is not just the wish of a couple of bureaucrats in Kiev but our people's sincere desire."
Ukraine has taken steps towards democracy since its Orange Revolution last autumn but still falls short in many areas, Minister De Gucht also observes. "Their candidacy will take time," De Gucht said in Kiev. "I believe that Ukraine's destiny lies in Europe but for that Kiev must first take all the steps to make its integration into the EU possible. On the one hand, they are opting for an open economy but, on the other, they are still adopting protectionist measures for their own economy."
So where to go from here? The ball is first in Kiev's court, according to De Gucht - become integrated into the European economy, then well see. Kiev is humming as never before but, at the same time, the new government in Kiev cannot dispel the impression that former President Leonid Kuchma's former authoritarian regime has been replaced by a gentler regime which in principle is in danger of taking the same path - the creation of a new "party of power," to which everybody owes obedience.
The difference from the former government is that nobody has yet been killed and that the squalid features of the Kuchma regime have not yet reappeared.
Next year, Belgium will be chairman of the OSCE - a loose alliance extending from the United States to Vladivostok. In that context, Minister De Gucht intends to build up ties of friendship everywhere. Last December he did that in Moscow - just before the US government intimated that Russia was taking the wrong path under Vladimir Putin.
What does Belgium intend to do with that OSCE chairmanship? "Attend to frozen conflicts, such as Transdniestria (a disaffected republic in Moldova backed by Russia - De Standaard editor's note). Whether that will succeed is doubtful but the attempt is praiseworthy. The Kremlin in particular remains a noteworthy challenge in that OSCE context - when OSCE observers noted last year that there had been massive fraud in the first rounds of the elections in Ukraine, OSCE member Russia's response was that those OSCE observers were refusing to respect the Ukrainian people's "democratic wishes".
How De Gucht means to reconcile his affection for Russia with his moral support for the EU aspirations of the new Ukraine - the only country with which Russia can identify for historical and cultural reasons - is a question which for the present still remains in the foreign minister's head. Perhaps the order at the Foreign Ministry is, Dont stick your neck out too far.
Source: De Standaard website, Groot-Bijgaarden, in Dutch 23 Jun 05
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