Yhiah News Agency
The way Ukraine’s leadership and
society embrace the opportunities offered by European integration
process will have a direct impact on the country’s human development
prospects. If Kyiv pursues its European aspirations and treats the
European ‘agenda’ as the main organising framework for the process of
vital reforms, Ukraine can achieve real improvements for the quality of
life, poverty reduction and social exclusion. The European integration
process offers a unique chance to significantly advance the level of
human development. According to the UN Office to Ukraine, these
findings have been released in the new UN Development Programme’s
National Human Development Report ‘Human Development and Ukraine’s
European Choice’ which was officially presented by Francis M.
O’Donnell, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in
Ukraine, Hryhoriy Nemyria, Vice-Prime Minister of Ukraine, Ian Boag,
Head of EC Delegation, and Jerzy Osiatynski, Coordinator of the Report.
“Since 1995 through its regular National Human Development
Reports in Ukraine, UNDP has been continuously drawing the attention of
the country’s policy-makers and civil society to the challenges the
country faces in social and economic development. National Human
Development Reports have offered in-depth focused perspectives on and
analysis of national circumstances and strategies for advancing human
development. The aim of the reports continues to be bringing together
the facts about human development in the country in order to influence
national policy and to mobilize various sectors of society,” Mr.
O’Donnell said. Since the publication of the latest National
Human Development Report (NHDR) in 2003, Ukraine has gone through a
period of important political and economic transformations making
important steps towards strengthening democracy and transition to a
full-fledged market economy. Yet despite these achievements,
many challenges lie ahead, requiring timely response from authorities
at all levels, and from civil society, the Report says. Notably, many
past initiatives were officially proclaimed, but progress in
implementing vital reforms to boost human development remains modest so
far. Vice-Prime Minister Hryhorii Nemyria welcomed the release
of UNDP’s 2008 report on “Human Development and Ukraine’s European
Choice” by saying that he was pleased to find out that this year’s
report combines human development and European integration. “In this
sense, - he added, - we converge on the idea that European integration
is not only a foreign policy priority, but first of all a blueprint for
domestic reform. I am confident that if we want to succeed with human
development agenda in Ukraine, we need to employ all possible tools –
and in our case the most effective tool is European integration.” In
2007, according to the global human development index, Ukraine was
ranked as 76th out of 177 countries, lagging far behind all EU
member-countries, including its closest neighbours like Hungary (36),
Poland (37), Slovakia (42), Bulgaria (53) and Romania (60), which
joined the EU most recently. Given that Ukraine has proclaimed
and frequently re-affirmed that its key foreign policy goal is to join
the European Union, the Report “Human Development and Ukraine’s
European Choice” examines how the European integration policy can
advance human development in its many aspects and how the country can
benefit from duly implemented requirements of various European
institutions and processes. Speaking at the presentation,
Professor Osiatynski said the Report’s objective was to compare the two
strategies and see whether they are consistent with each other, and if
they are, then to determine what the consequences of their
implementation can be. The Report’s authors argue that European
integration – often referred to as the European Choice – is not merely
a geo-political aspiration, but fundamentally a human development
process, affecting quality of life and people’s well-being. Moreover,
the Report explains that human development, reflecting a philosophy
that puts people at the centre of the development process, is very
similar to European integration, implying meeting specific requirements
and implementing many standards. But both approaches lead to improved
people’s prosperity. The current trends in the changes in life
expectancy in the EU member-countries as a whole, on the one hand, and
in Ukraine and CIS on the other hand, provide the best evidence of the
impact the practical implementation of the European integration
strategy has on human development. For instance, since Latvia,
Lithuania and Estonia embarked on European integration, the life
expectancy raised respectively from 69.14 and 70.64 and 69.79 years (as
of 1991) to 71.06 and 71.33 and 72.89 years (as of 2005). While life
expectancy in Ukraine decreased from 69.68 in 1991 to 67.3 years in
2005. As a result, the Report argues that from the viewpoint of
the economic, social and institutional environment necessary to
encourage long-run sustainable human development, the European
requirements and the Human Development process and specifically the
MDGs coincide completely. Once the country effectively pursues
its European integration path, it significantly facilitates the
achievement of higher standards of life and establishment of safer
environment for its people. The Report writes that European
integration is complex and includes far-reaching political, economic
and social reforms that are required not only to achieve Ukraine’s
strategic objective of joining the EU, but also, more importantly, to
define the principles and foundations for the country’s further
development. Notably, in the polls, quoted in the Report, all Ukrainian
respondents show a clear preference for European values and European
forms of social organization. Yet, public awareness of the true
meaning of European values and of the benefits that European
integration brings to economic, social and human development must be
raised. The same relates to knowing about Ukraine’s challenges ahead.
Having better understanding of these will help every citizen take part
in following the implementation of their country’s European integration
policy. The Report underlines the need to promote deeper
economic integration and regulatory convergence with the EU within the
existing framework of European Neighbourhood Policy. The report
argues that in order to improve the quality of life and the human
development index, delivery of basic services such as health care,
education and communal services have to be improved. It calls for
completion of administrative reform and for real decentralization of
power from the centre to Ukraine’s regions and districts, as well as
for creation of strong self-government structures, allowing better
service delivery and fairer distribution of fruits of the economic
growth. Public goods and basic social services must be
delivered by government administration or self-government in localities
where people live and work. The availability of financial and other
resources at the local level is of critical importance for meeting the
goals and targets of human development, the Millennium Development
Goals and social inclusion, says the Report. In addition, the
Report analyses the experience of new EU member-states and argues that
the benefits of EU membership heavily outweighed the costs. Free trade
agreements with the EU are an enormous motivation to trade growth. But
because EU free trade agreements usually do not include all
agricultural products, an important goal for Ukraine would be to seek
the widest possible access to the EU agricultural market – especially
as this would have clear benefits for EU consumers. Open access
to the EU market is likely to spur a massive influx of foreign direct
investment in Ukraine, provided investors have trust in the
predictability of policies and the rule of law. The trust of foreign
investors can be won if all the executive powers in Ukraine show their
ability to implement consistently EU standards relating to the
development of a market economy and participatory democracy, the Report
argues. In this context, Vice Prime Minister Hryhorii Nemyria
informed about the launch of negotiations on a deep and comprehensive
free trade between the EU and Ukraine in February this year. He
suggested that “it was difficult to see the connection between trade
issues and human development at first glance. But in fact deep free
trade is about introducing good governance, fair and transparent
conditions for business, higher quality and cheaper products and
services for consumers. This will create a solid base for human
development.”
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