BFEPR 9158
Inna A. Pidluska
This project aims at providing research-based analytical justification and description of a technical mechanism for optimizing Ukraine-EU relations through formulation, coordination, implementation and monitoring of Ukraine’s policy towards the EU and preparing the Ukrainian government institutionally, and the civil society politically and economically, for meeting EU integration criteria.
The focus of the study has been on the relation between preparations for EU membership and increasing stability, progress in democratization and economic growth in pre-accession states, and prospects for active involvement of non-accession states in European cooperation.
Specifically, within the first period of the fellowship my research focused on the following:
EU accession policies of the “first wave” states and pre-accession efforts of other CEE states that aspire EU membership have been analyzed;
political, societal and institutional environments of, and challenges to Ukraine’s European integration efforts have been analyzed;
main areas of focus have been (a) economic relations (including trade, competition, intellectual property rights), and (b) cooperation in countering common new security threats (including ethnic conflicts, illegal migration, organized crime and corruption), as well as (c) interaction at the civil society level, research and information exchange.
Specific attention has been paid to the study of Ukraine’s relations with Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, the Baltics and Russia.
Within the first period of the project “The European Union and Ukraine in Transition: Policies for Cooperation” (February - June 2001) the following scope of work has been completed:
As initially planned, the first period of my fellowship was devoted primarily to research. Specifically, the research activities included:
identification of relevant materials and sources on the issues of research, analysis of relevant documents, gathering statistical data, interviews and discussions with policy-makers and think tank experts from the target accession states and Ukraine.
Within this framework, the following work has been done:
An analysis of democratisation and economic reform performance by Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Romania was perform as a foundation for a "baseline assessment" of the countries' conditions by the time the accession negotiations with the "front-runners" began (1998).
Analysis of the CEE countries' accession strategies have been performed and summarized.
Materials of the EC summits, primarily the Helsinki summit (1999), the Nice summit (2000) and the Geteburg summit (2001), as well as other relevant materials on the enlargement have been analyzed.
European Commission's Opinions on the relevant accession countries have been studied.
Bilateral relations, agreements and treaties between the accession countries and Ukraine have been analyzed.
Ukraine - EU agreements, documents and chronology of relations have been analyzed.
Data from a number of opinion polls on the EU and the enlargement process conducted in Ukraine, the EU and the target accession countries have been collected. Agencies that had conducted the opinion polls include Eurobarometer, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, the Ukrainian Center for Economic and Political Studies.
Contributions by the civil society to promoting the debate about the enlargement process in the accession countries have been assessed and analyzed. The think tanks, NGOs and academic institutions whose experience of research and projects on the EU, the European integration processes, the prospects for crossborder cooperation and the euro-regions include the East-West Institute, the Slovak Foreign Policy Association, the Center for European Reform (UK), the International Center for Policy Studies (Ukraine), the Ukrainian Center for Economic and Political Studies (Ukraine), the Institute of Public Affairs (Poland), the Royal Institute of International Affairs (UK).
The initial research results were summarized in the draft research paper available at www.policy.hu/pidluska .
As a "side product" of the research, a database of links to Internet resources on the enlargement, a bibliography and a database of agencies, projects and think tanks dealing with the enlargement is being created and will be made available from my webpage at www.policy.hu/pidluska
In addition to the research work conducted within the first period of the fellowship, I visited a number of conferences that addressed the issues relevant to my research project. Major conferences attended include:
“Borders of Europe - Borders of Ukraine: Through Common Interests to Common Security”, Kyiv, 16 February 2001
"The Reform Process in Central and Eastern Europe Ten Years After”, organized by the Council on Foreign Relations (USA) and the Institute of Public Affairs, Bratislava, Slovakia, March 2001
"Europe as One Security Area" - Potsdam Spring Series, Berlin-Potsdam, April 19-22, 2001
"Ukraine and the EU" - organized by the European Commission, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (UK), Brussels, April 24, 2001
"Europe 2021: Beyond Visible and Invisible Borders", within the British Council's European Series, Krakow, April 26-29, 2001
"Ukraine, Poland and the Enlargement of the EU", in the "Dialogues on the Borders" series, Lviv (Ukraine), Prszemysl (Poland), May 21-25, 2001
Participation in the conferences allowed me to make presentations on issues of Ukraine’s relations with countries of the region and the EU, take part in discussion groups, share opinions and have interviews with other participants working in the similar fields. During the conferences I have a chance to discuss my research findings with experts of the European Commission, OSCE, the Council of Europe, the Council of the European Union, the Development and Peace Foundation (Germany), the Osteuropa-Institute Munchen, the Center for European Reform (UK), the Bertelsmann Foundation, the Transeuropean Political Studies Association (TEPSA) (Belgium), Departments of International Relations of the Lviv State University and the Kyiv National University, representative of the Governemnt Plenipotentiary for Poland’s Accession Negotiations to the EU, the Polish Department of Coordination and Monitoring of Foreign Assistance, the Institute of Public Affairs (Slovakia), School of Slavonic and East European Studies (UK), University of National and World Economy (Bulgaria),
An article summarizing Ukraine's relations with the European Union and highlighting the government's and the public's views on these relations was published in "The Context", the in-house journal of the Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research.
An "adapted" summary of Ukraine-EU relations, relevant legislation and methodology of approximation of Ukraine's legislation to the EU standards was prepared for a "Journalist's Reference Book on European Integration" (currently being published by the Europe XXI Foundation).
Currently I am in the process of preparing a series of articles, based on my research findings, for the Ukrainian press.