Europe Needs Ukraine - Polish Ex-President

KYIV, Ukraine, April 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

In 10 years or so the EU will have to initiate Ukraine's entry into the Union because it will require access to its market and labor force. Such opinion was expressed by the former President of Poland Aleksander Kwasniewski in the interview to Wprost, as reported by Unian.

Former President Kwasniewski suggested that if the EU said no to Ukraine and Turkey now, it would have to really ask them to join the block in 10 years because it would not make any sense to abandon the potential the two countries possessed.

"Europe needs Ukraine, with its demographic and market potential as well as millions of Ukrainians who are currently working in the EU and Poland," noted Kwasniewski.

He acknowledged that in 2012 Ukrainian government made significant progress in meeting the requirements of the Association Agreement (AA) that had been initialed in March last year. Besides, Ukrainian authorities are ready to introduce the European standards, he reiterated, unlike Russian and Belarusian authorities.

Moreover, Kwasniewski added that Ukrainian oligarchs are the ones who are most interested in Ukraine's accession to the EU. In his opinion Ukraine's European integration will guarantee the preservation of the capital, provide for better loan opportunities and access to foreign markets. "They want a country with the law and safety of economic exchange," - said the former president of Poland.

The idea that Ukraine was "important to Europe as a source of economic growth and energy security, as well as a bridge to Russia," has been shared on April 2, 2013, by the former Italian Prime Minister and the former European Commission President Romano Prodi in his article for the Christian Science Monitor.

The Italian politician reminded that signing the AA with Ukraine would enhance bilateral trade and travel, offer a large new market for the European products, provide Europe with new capable workers, improve Europe's energy security (Ukraine possesses 1.2 trillion cubic meters of shale gas), and improve security interests of the West.

In addition, the politician suggested that it would "restrain anti-democratic impulses", like it did in Hungary, for instance. He reminded that some of the new member states at the time of their accession in 2004 displayed conditions worse than those of today's Ukraine.