Publication

Martin Sieg, Director of the Institute for European Policies and Reforms (Chisinau)The European integration of Ukraine can only succeed as a modernization project. It is about not so much foreign policy, or geopolitics; it is firstly about building a competitive economy, creating the opportunities. This is a very ambitious domestic reform program, and it can not be done by one part of the society against the other one. So the geopolitical division in the process of European integration must be bridged by bringing all parts of the society together and this is why it is so important also to include the minorities.

Ukraine and Moldova so far had a lot of divided identities and that made it so difficult to embark on really national projects. Now, to develop European integration, it needs to be turned into a national project and it needs to be made sure that minorities follow that path, too. That’s a work of convincing, but that’s also a work of engaging minorities. You should not just pretend, but this needs to be explained. They need to be actually actively included in that project to participate, in the political decision making, in the implementation, so to make it in the end a successful project for everybody.