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Ukraine’s European Integration Through the OSCE
Quite often European integration is viewed too narrowly as only an economic phenomenon that mainly takes place in the European Union. However, according to the approach that is suggested here, European integration occurs in a variety of fields and is performed within a wide range of organizations acting in Europe. Frequently, the role of regional organizations is overlooked or disregarded, but, having established a framework for integration, they became a necessary means for the process of integration. Furthermore, the role of these institutions has become much more important in the process of the “return to Europe” of the former Soviet states in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). In addition, it is also possible to determine a level of integration for each particular state into European region.
A New Approach European integration is a complex process that takes place in a multiplicity of fields. It would be difficult, if not impossible at all, to define the core or the driving domain of integration if there is one. For more than fifty years, integration has been taking place in Europe. During that relatively long time and due to a spillover process, integration has been spreading through economic, social and security fields to a political one. A complex approach to integration implies mutual dependence among all the fields where the process is taking place. Therefore, the success in one of the fields will be beneficial to the same process in other areas. Similarly, the failure in a separate area of integration will result in resistance in other fields and slow down the whole process. The theory of institutionalization explains the integration of the Central-Eastern European states to Western Europe better than other theories. (1) No longer are national governments the most important institution- builders of the European Community in contrast to the premise of intergovernmentalist theory in which governments are main players. (2) The governments of CEE states are not the only and they are not the most important actors in the process of accession of their states to European organizations. However, since they decide whether integration is in their country’s national interest, state authorities still play a huge role in the process. Furthermore, the implementation of inner social, economic, and military reforms and the achievement of certain accession criteria of each organization also depend on national governments. On the other hand, after a government decides to adopt its foreign policy to meet membership requirements, it has to follow certain procedures, and meet certain criteria to become eligible for membership in European institutions. Even though governments meet membership requirements, this fact does not guarantee their accession to organization, as in the case of the Copenhagen criteria. A Way of Measuring Regional Integration Since European integration is operating through regional structures, the level of integration into those institutions by a state will be a reflection of integration into the region. The level of integration into organizations can be defined through discovering different stages of accession to the institution on the way to full-fledged membership and determining the place of a particular state on this path. By using this approach, I am going to develop the whole picture of European integration. Monitoring the stages that Ukraine overcame and defining the steps which are left to be made in order to become a full-fledged member in the regional governmental organizations, I will investigate the place of Ukraine in this process. It is easy, due to this approach, to see where the country is successful, and in what domain it should put more effort because all the fields of integration are interconnected and failure of a state in one area will increase the difficulties to integrate in other fields. Each state goes through stages of development in cooperating with governmental organizations and only after that does it becomes a full-fledged member. Since there is certain procedure of accession to an organization, the processes of becoming member-states are similar for each country. However, the ways of integrating to a particular institution in order for a state to become available for starting the process of accession may be different. For example, the process of becoming a member of the EU is the same for each state, but the process of incorporation in the organization is different for many states. However, it is possible to define similar phases of involvement in each organization, determine a degree of involvement of states, and compare their level of involvement. It is important to remember that the path traveled by a state toward a membership is precise. In contrast, the road ahead may be a little different in detail compared to the way suggested in this paper. Using the logic of the organization, I propose the minimum number of necessary stages of cooperation with the multilateral organizations, which Ukraine must successfully pass through to become a member of a particular organization.
Ukraine and the CSCE/OSCE Ukraine quite quickly gained membership in the CSCE and joined it on January 30, 1992. A special form of co-operation was established between the state and the organization which was carried out by the OSCE Mission to Ukraine. According to the CSO Decision of June 15, 1994 on the sending of CSCE experts on constitutional and economic matters to Ukraine, the Mission was given the task of supporting the work of the aforementioned experts and reporting on the situation in the Crimea where ethnic tensions had become urgent. (3) The Mission became operational on November 24, 1994. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the Ukrainian Government and the Mission to Ukraine on January 24, 1995. The Mission had its headquarters in Kiev and maintained a branch office in Simferopol. Among the main tasks for the Mission were followings:
After the Autonomous Republic of Crimea was legislatively established, its Constitution was adopted, ethnic conflict there has been mainly resolved, and the tasks were fulfilled, the Mission ceased to function on April 30, 1999. The ending of the Mission was unique in the history of the OSCE, too, because it was the first time that the Mission OSCE ended its work because it had successfully fulfilled its tasks. Besides special form of co-operation Ukraine actively participates in peacekeeping and peacemaking operations of the OSCE. Ukrainian military troops participated in OSCE missions to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, and Georgia. For example, there were five representatives of the Ministry of Urgent Affairs of Ukraine and about fifty individuals of peacekeeping staff within the OSCE Mission to Kosovo. (5) Ukrainian military observers helped to perform the tasks of the OSCE mission in Georgia. (6) Special Co-operation between Ukraine and the OSCE in the Social Sphere In accordance with Permanent Council Decision #295 and the Memorandum of Understanding, a new form of co-operation (mandate) between Ukraine and the OSCE was created from June 1, 1999 to December 31, 1999 with the possibility of prolongations for periods of six month.(7) This co-operation is based on “Planning, implementation and monitoring of projects between relevant authorities of Ukraine and the OSCE.” (8) In order to carry out these tasks, an OSCE Project Coordinator was established in Ukraine with the office in Kyiv. Presently, after six periods of prolongation took place, the Project Coordinator is authorized to work until December 31, 2002. Then, the OSCE will decide again whether to prolong the mandate. The Project Coordinator has submitted twelve project proposals to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and all of them have been approved. (9) Within the project on comprehensive review of human rights legislation, the Coordinator has been helping to bring Ukrainian legislation on human rights into the line with international standards. The project on reforms of propiska (or residence permit) system, assisted Ukraine to transform the system into a compatible one with democratic standards because the current system restricted the freedom of movement of the Ukrainians. The OSCE through the Coordinator provided technical and advisory assistance for the Office of Ombudsman in Kyiv. In order to facilitate access to the decisions and expertise of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, the Project Coordinator has been assisting in developing of a nationwide Internetbased database of court rulings and other information. Presently, the Coordinator helps with the creation of administrative court system in Ukraine. The OSCE and the European Commission provided technical assistance to the support the fighting of trafficking of human beings in and from Ukraine. According to this issue, the special emphasis is placed on anti-trafficking legislation and law enforcement. The Coordinator with the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media helped Ukrainian authorities to achieve unified legislation which would encompass current international standards regarding freedom of the media. The OSCE has been supporting the military reform in the country by providing technical expertise in the establishment of the military police and in organizing a series of lectures at the National Defense Academy of Ukraine. The Coordinator also supports projects related to the return and re-integration of formerly deported persons of Crimea, the increase of border security, the promotion of transparency of the regional government level, and the fight against corruption. Fair and genuine elections, which reduce ethnic tensions and are the basis for democracy, are one of the political values of the Western Europe. The OSCE is very concerned about this issue. Consequently, the election observers of the OSCE have been supervising all parliamentary and presidential elections in Ukraine since 1992. After elections are over, the Election Observations Mission issues a final report about the improvements and abuses during the elections. This helps the international and Ukrainian communities to know more about this political process in Ukraine. The Most Urgent Issues in Ukrainian-OSCE Relations The projects of the Co-ordinator reflect the current problems in Ukraine and the frequent activities of the OSCE in Ukraine replicate the current concerns of the organization. Regarding this, I would consider that the OSCE is presently concerned about the following issues in Ukraine:
Another constant and substantial concern of the OSCE is presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine. Regardless of numerous improvements, Ukraine “failed to guarantee a level playing field, an indispensable condition to ensure the fairness of the [election] process.” (19) According to the Final Report on the last elections in Ukraine, there were following imperfections during this process in 2002:
Violations of the secrecy of the vote, when voters added to registers in apparent contravention of the law, overcrowding in some polling stations as a result of poor facilities, and abuse of “absentee certificates” thereby allowing the possible manipulation of some contests were the most serious violations during the polling. According to the interview with the Project Coordinator, the main concern of the OSCE is the rule of law in Ukraine which implies law making and law enforcement. (20) Ukraine lacks strong and independent judicial system which helps to enforce legislations and establish the rule of law. There is still no legislation which would define in details the functions and responsibilities of the judicial system. Transparency, accessibility, and responsibility of the government are the other issues. The Co-ordinator helps Ukrainian authorities to create web pages. Although, web pages for the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and for Chernigivska oblast administration have been created with the help of the Coordinator, there are much more sites for regional and central authorities needs to be established. In order to make the government more responsible for its illegal actions towards citizens and responsive to the needs of the ordinary people, an administrative court system should be established. (21) This branch of Ukrainian judicial system will enable the citizens to sue the government, its agencies and civil servants. The Implication of Special Co-operation The path toward OSCE membership was a short one for Ukraine and included such two main stages as appeal for membership and the decision of the Permanent Council about the accession of the state to the organization. However, there is one more additional phase for Ukraine to overcome. West European participating states do not have special forms of co-operation with the OSCE in contrast to the former Socialistic Republics of the USSR and some Central-European states. Missions and mandates are the most common forms of such co-operation. The advantage of such special relations is that that the OSCE, with the agreements of the host countries, helps member states to resolve their common problems and to approach to European standards. The disadvantage of special co-operation is that its existence implies the presence of the problems in a country. These problems disturb both stability and security in the region as well as are inconsistent with the standards and values of the Western Europe; consequently, they are of an organization’s concern. The two types of the special co-operation between a member state and the OSCE can be distinguished. The first one, which usually has the form of a mission, is aimed at prevention and resolution of (ethnic) conflicts or post-conflict rehabilitation. Similar to many OSCE’s activities, this type of co-operation is directly related to security which is the main priority of the organization. The examples of such co-operation are the OSCE Missions to Croatia, the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, the OSCE Mission to Moldova, and the OSCE Assistance Group to Chechnya. (22) The other form of special co-operation, which often has the form of mandate, takes place in the social sphere and is aimed at law enforcement, promotion of human rights, fair elections, and freedom of the press. The Advisory and Monitoring Group in Belarus, the Project Coordinator in Ukraine, and the Offices in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are good examples of this form of special co-operation. (23) The implication of the existence of special co-operation between a member state and the OSCE is twofold. First, since it implies presence of the problems which cannot be tolerated either by a state or by the organization, it is necessary to consider such co-operation as one more stage for a state to pass in order to be entirely integrated to the organization. Second, because it is possible to distinguish that there are two fields of main activities of the OSCE, it proves the fact that integration within this organization is performed in two fields and, consequently, it should be measured in two fields separately. The Level of Integration to the Organization of the Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Importance of this Process Ukraine has been a member of the OSCE since 1992 and has had such two forms of special co-operation with the organization as mission and mandate. The country worked closely with the OSCE in both spheres both security and social spheres. For example, the OSCE Mission to Ukraine from 1994 to 1999 was the form of co-operation in the field of security. The fact that the OSCE Mission to Ukraine successfully finished its tasks and the ethnic tensions there have been resolved as well as there have been no military conflicts on the peninsula and in the whole country proves that Ukraine passed its final stage of integration in the area of European security within the OSCE (Figure 3). Unfortunately, co-operation in the social sphere has been less successful. The Project Coordinator has been helping the country since 1999, but the problems in the social sphere of Ukraine, which are literally the issues of the concern of the OSCE, seam to be endless. Therefore, the country has not passed yet through its last stage of integration within the OSCE in the social field (Figure 2). The presence of the Project Coordinator, its multiple projects and the failure to establish the rule of law prove this.
The Community of Concerns of European Organizations towards Ukraine Since the OSCE is a regional organization that partially operates in the social field and reflects the values of the same European region, it is not surprising that this organization is concerned about the same or similar issues in Ukraine than other European organizations. For example, the Council of Europe and the OSCE are both concerned in Ukraine with law making and law implementing, freedom of press, elections, and corruption. Consequently, European regional governmental organizations operating in one field have many issues of their common concern towards Ukraine. As a result of this, Ukrainian authorities, by resolving certain problems with one of these organizations, will simultaneously improve relations with other structures in the same field. Furthermore, because the OSCE operates in social and security fields, the improvement of relationships in one field will indirectly help Ukraine to advance in the other sphere within the organization. It would be hard for the OSCE to fight problems alone in the region while other regional organizations are concerned with similar issues; therefore, the OSCE has such regional partners as the CoE, (24) NATO, (25) and EU. (26) As a result, there are some issues that shared by regional organizations of different fields. For example, the fair and genuine elections are of a great concern of the European Union. The European Commission, one of the main institutions of the European Union, is assisting Ukraine, together with the OSCE, in creation and implementation anti-trafficking legislation. (27) Another example of the issue of common concern between the OSCE and the EU was given by the Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine, Peter Burkhard. He said that Ukraine, in order to “attract more foreign investments” [and become eligible for the EU membership] needs “more effective and transparent legislative base” that is the issue with which the OSCE is helping Ukraine through the Project Co-ordinator. (28) Therefore, improvement or worsen of these matters will respectively reflect the Ukrainian-EU relations and integrations of a state in the economic sphere. Ukraine has been integrating successfully to the OSCE and through it European region. However, the country currently has some problems which are the concerns of the OSCE and CoE, the EU, NATO separately. The OSCE is troubled with adopting certain legislations that Ukraine is obliged to adopt, the freedom of expression and press, murders of journalists, intimidation of politicians, unclear separation of power, corruption, money laundering, organized crime, torture treatment by the police and unacceptable conditions in prisons. The OSCE is mainly concerned about the rule of law in Ukraine, human rights and media legislations and their implementation, transparency of Ukrainian authority, corruption, strengthening of the judicial system, trafficking in human beings, and not fair elections. These issues are the obstacles for the further integration by Ukraine; therefore, they should be addressed by Ukrainian authorities immediately and on a regular basis. In fact, there are similarities in concerns of the two organizations. They are such as the rule law and human rights, freedom of press, elections, and corruption in Ukraine. Since the resolution of these problems will benefit integration of Ukraine within OSCE and simultaneously with other European organizations, it is reasonable for Ukraine to pay the main attention to the issues of common concern. Acknowledgements Research for this article was supported in part by the Edmund S. Muskie/Freedom Support Act Graduate Fellowship Program, a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), U.S. Department of State under authority of the Fulbright- Hays Act of 1961 as amended, and administered by the American Councils for International Education: ACTR/ACCELS (American Councils). The opinions expressed herein are author’s own and do not necessarily express the views of either ECA or American Councils. The author also wishes to thank Dr. Beat Kernen, the Head of Political Science Department at Southwest Missouri State University, for his support and assistance. References
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