The leadership of Europe, it seems, is aware of the problem, which the President of the United States Donald trump poses for the Transatlantic Alliance. German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently reminded Europe that “our fate is in our own hands,” and former Prime Minister of Belgium, President of the Alliance of liberals and Democrats in the European group (ALDE) in the European Parliament guy Verhofstadt (Guy Verhofstadt) argues that “Europe should take its future and security into their own hands”.
One of the ways for Europe to increase control over their own destiny and security — to strengthen the support of Ukraine. In the end, to have a stable, Pro-Western Ukraine on the Eastern border is in the interests of Europe. By making four simple steps to achieve this goal.
First, the EU must finally meet their commitments to provide Ukrainians visa-free regime. Kiev has fulfilled the requirements in the framework of the action Plan on visa liberalization. However, rather than reward the Ukraine for this achievement, due to internal policy, the EU continues to delay the actual implementation bezveza for Ukrainians.
Such actions are unfair and weaken the efforts of the EU diplomacy. Civil society activists UkraineAlert complain that whenever the EU is pushing Kiev to reform the administration of the President, the government, and Parliament — all resist, using as a pretext the fact that the EU should first introduce a visa-free regime, and only then Brussels to criticize Ukraine. Unfortunately, this plays into the hands of Moscow. If the Ukrainians think that the EU breaks its promises, this trend will only increase.
Secondly, the EU should allocate additional resources to anti-corruption reforms. The deeper and faster reforms are implemented, the greater the likelihood that Ukraine will be stable and will move to the EU.
The EU should also help Ukraine in the establishment of a special anti-corruption courts, which is a key requirement of the IMF. The EU could provide funding and also help give the judges a competitive salary. This would contribute to the independence of judges and would free them from the vagaries of the state budget.
Thirdly, the EU should consider funding a “mini-Marshall plan” for Ukraine. According to some estimates, during the war with Russia in Donbass, Ukraine has already paid at least six billion dollars in foreign direct investment. To combat this deficit, the EU would have to seek the assistance of the European investment Bank (EIB) and European Bank of reconstruction and development could invest directly in the Ukrainian business and infrastructure. Such investments particularly would win the Donbass, the infrastructure of which lies in ruins.
And finally, the EU should stand in the way of European companies that they no longer sell Russian products for military-industrial complex. According to the report, 2016 journalist Yuri Lobanov, in 2015 the German business was supported by the Russian military from selling them equipment for the production of engines for fighter company “Sukhoi” (engaged in missile technology), as were sales, and the main Russian producers of air defense systems. Last year the European company sold the equipment of the Russian nuclear defence companies, large missile enterprises and manufacturers of military aircraft. The EU could support the efforts of Ukraine in the Donbass, just stopping this trade. It must be done out of self-interest of the EU, increasing therefore support of Ukraine. Whether Brussels has the desire to do so?
