On April 26, 2012 the Public discussion on “Why Europe needs an open Ukraine?” took place in Barcelona. The roundtable was organized by Barcelona Center of International Affairs (Spain),and co-organized by Europe without barriers (Ukraine, Kyiv) and the Economic Forum (ISW, Poland).
Why Europe needs Ukraine? And what Ukraine it needs? What the request and message of the West should be to be heard here and then provided with a fitting answer? A broad range of experts tried to find out the answers to these and more like them questions.
Javier Solana, Honorary Director of CIDOB, former European Union’s High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Borys Tarasyuk, Head of the Committee on European Integration of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, member of the European Parliament Pawel Kowal (Poland), and Oleksandr Sushko, Scientific Director at the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation participated in the roundtable discussion. The event was widely attended by the representatives from Ukrainian Communities in Catalonia, local Spanish experts and by O. Khrypunov, the Consul General of Ukraine in Barcelona.
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The event was a part of a series of presentations, expressing ideas in the framework of the project: “Ukraine-Spain migration nexus: benefits and risks in the context of visa liberalisation process between Ukraine and the EU”, carried out by Europe without Barriers and Barcelona Center for International Affairs at support of the International Renaissance Foundation in the frame of Think Tanks cooperation between Ukraine and Western Europe.
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In the first panel of the discussion Javier Solana expressed his and his colleague’s joint “frustration” over the situation in Ukraine. He stressed that they always try to be supportive and helpful to Ukraine. However, despite the high expectations, Ukraine didn’t manage to keep the role of a "Flagman of Democratic and Economic transfrormations in Eastern Europe" and to consolidate the achievements and maintain the interability of the Path to European integration. He also pointed out that Ukraine still has chances to advance in the process of European integration if it would draw proper lessons from the past and current events.
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The report: “Open Ukraine. Changing Course towards a European Future”, conducted by Polish partners from the Economic Forum (ISW), which over the last years has become a major economic event and a renowned platform of discussion in this region. The report was presented by Maria Shmelova, Senior Coordinator for Ukraine at ISW. The full text of the report is available here
The research of CIDOB, presented by the expert Elena Sanchez Montijano gave an overview of the role and place of Ukrainian Community in Spanish (including Catalonian) society. The study showed specific character of Ukrainian migrant’s location in Spain, their social status, sphere of occupation and perception of Ukrainians by the local population of Spain.
Civic Initiative “Europe without Barriers” presented key findings of the survey, carried out among different social representatives and professional groups of Ukrainian diaspora in Spain. The main outcomes of the research verified the fact that mostly Ukrainians look for the legal mechanisms of living and working in Spain.
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As for the estimations of Iryna Sushko, head of Civic Initiative “Europe without Barriers” the times of domination of certain illegal work forces have passed. Also she stressed that majority of polled Ukrainians do not consider the possibilities of working or staying illegally in Spain as an acceptable option. The study outcomes showed high level of integration capabilities of Ukrainian Community to modern European Society, while preserving at the same time connections with their home country, and in most cases their national identity and appropriate self-organization.
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The results of our common research will be published at our website very soon
