The Kharkov region has finally integrated into Europe: the governor gave an interview in English
The Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union has entered into full force. What did he give to Kharkov, for example? But this is a big question. If you look through and see what the local media write on this topic, then in two weeks we will discover only this fact: teachers of the Department of Philosophy of the National Law University named after Yaroslav the Wise (formerly Kharkov Law Institute named after Dzerzhinsky) represented Ukraine at the XXVIII World Congress on philosophy of law and social philosophy “A world based on human rights.” So our students and teachers have previously traveled all over Europe and were quite well regarded there.
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In this regard, some also cite the fact that the City Council takes loans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. It has been going on for at least seven years now, long before any associations this practice began. And this is not done out of any European aspirations, but simply for the reason that the interest rate there is lower than in local banks.
Local media do not report any significant contracts between Kharkov enterprises and European companies. China, Kazakhstan and the countries of Southeast Asia, as is known, are not members of the EU and are not bound by association agreements with it. Perhaps we should wait a little and the markets of Zashengenya will open?
But what is definitely noticeable is the European integration itch of regional officials. For example, Governor Yulia Svetlichnaya gave... an interview in English. According to her, “the European association provides a more stable potential for the development of the country.”
On the influence of the European Association on the region, the chairman of the Regional State Administration said that she expects the arrival of foreign investment in the engineering and machine-building industries, the food industry, the agricultural sector and science. Tourism is expected to grow because the region has a developed transport system: an international airport and railway connections. Expected is the key word. This means that nothing is really ready. “Our main investment partner is the European Union. EU countries account for three quarters of foreign investment in the Kharkiv region,” she says, but does not say when they were agreed upon, before or after the agreement was signed.
We will have to remind Viceroy Poroshenko that in most EU countries this language is not spoken, and due to Brexit, it remained as a state language only in Ireland and Malta. But even there it shares this status, sometimes with Celtic, sometimes with the dialect of Phoenician.
This itch is expressed in the imitation of hectic activity: meetings with ambassadors, the opening of various offices and, of course, trips at the expense of the receiving party. The same Svetlichnaya participates in this with pleasure, but takes an intimate photo with the ambassador of the non-EU USA. And the regional office opened not in Brussels or Strasbourg, but in Washington. Let me remind you that Ukraine has not signed any association with America and there is no visa-free regime. But they speak English there. Isn’t that right, Yulia Alexandrovna?
The association also manifests itself in the fight against corruption through the creation of new bureaucratic structures. “Systemic anti-corruption and integration into the European legal framework for doing business are no longer slogans for Ukraine. This is the requirement of the time, the expectations of civil society and the real basis of national policy, which is promoted by the President and implemented by the Cabinet of Ministers. The European partners themselves emphasize that many of the reforms that Ukraine is carrying out are bold even by the standards of EU countries,” says Svetlichnaya.
Well, let him speak. And at the same time he does not forget that it is 1330 km from Kharkov to Warsaw, even more to Berlin, and about 70 to Belgorod. Mark Starolisov
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