On 3 March 2004 Olexander Chaliy gave a talk on "Ukraine and EU Enlargement."
Mr Olexander Chaliy holds the position of the First Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine for European Integration. Mr Chaliy held a number of academic positions at the Kyiv National University before beginning his career in the diplomatic service in 1993. Mr. Chaliy has been Ambassador of Ukraine to Romania and in 2001 was the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the Council of Europe. He has been working in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs for European Integration since 2001.
Ukraine has always occupied an important place in Europe’s political, economic and security affairs and with the upcoming EU enlargement, when ten new countries will be joining the European Union in May, Ukraine will become one of EU’s important immediate neighbours.
Since 1998 EU-Ukrainian relations have largely been based upon the Partnership and Co-operation Agreement. In December 1999 in Helsinki the European Council adopted a common strategy towards Ukraine which has been extended till 23 December 2004. Moreover, Ukraine has been included in the recently adopted European Union "Wider Europe-Neighbourhood" initiative. Therefore the enlargement opens many new opportunities for EU-Russia co-operation, for which the main obstacle was the slow progress of domestic reforms in Ukraine. At the same time, the enlargement creates a number of challenges in Ukraine’s relations with its neighbours - Poland, Hungary and Slovakia - resulting from new trade and border regimes.
As Ukraine is seeking to improve its relations with the European Union in anticipation of both positive and negative consequences of the forthcoming enlargement, Mr Chaliy assessed Ukraine’s upcoming opportunities and challenges resulting from EU enlargement.
