EU visabeleid gaat mis in de Oekraïne (en)

EUOBSERVER / COMMENT - External relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner has presented the EU's visa facilitation scheme for Ukraine as a big achievement of her European Neighbourhood Policy - but so far it has seen an increase in visa costs and scandalous behaviour at EU embassies in Kiev.

Some time ago people walking by one of the EU embassies in Kiev watched a free concert - a children's choir from the city of Kharkov, with more than 20 kids braving the cold weather to sing folk and modern songs outside the consulate building. The songs were tender lullabies or joyful hymns, but the children's faces showed something different - humiliation. They had been forced to leave their homes 500 kilometres outside Kiev, pay to come and stay in the expensive capital, and sing for the consulate to prove that they really are a choir invited to take part in an EU festival and not illegal migrants.

They finally got their visas. But another group of 45 young journalists and political activists was less lucky. They had been invited by Polish MEP Michal Kaminsky to come and see how the European Parliament in Brussels functions and how to strengthen parliamentary culture in Ukraine. The Brussels parliament hosts dozens of such visitors every week from all over Europe, but not Ukraine. The Belgian embassy in Kiev selected five people for interviews, four of which were fine but one of which went badly, as a 22-year old literature student - who had dreamed all his life to make such a trip - became emotional. All 45 had their visas rejected. Phone calls from the European Parliament, Ukrainian diplomats and even ex-foreign minister Boris Tarasiuk did not help. The Belgian embassy did not give an explanation. Instead of helping shape 45 supporters of European integration - some of whom may one day hold powerful places in Ukraine - the embassy has insulted and embarrassed them. They will remember how Europe treated them.

Long queues

Talking to Ukrainian officials and ordinary people in the street, you hear hundreds of such stories. The German embassy in Kiev issues 100,000 visas a year. Poland even more. The figures seem impressive, but they conceal how many people are rejected. Some EU embassies say they reject about 20 percent. Many refuse to disclose the figure. Ukrainian diplomats estimate the real level is 50 percent. On top of this, many people's applications are never even taken for consideration - some people give up because of the long queues, some get confused by the complex paperwork and some have the bad luck to meet an EU official who got up in a bad mood that morning. In a recent survey by the Ukraine foreign ministry, the number one complaint of 50 percent of respondents was lack of politeness and respect of the dignity of applicants.

Twenty years ago in Kiev people had to stand in line for four hours just to buy sausages. Today, we are a market economy and there are enough sausages, but the queues have come back at EU embassies. If you want to go shopping in the Champs Elysee, get ready to be a frequent visitor to the French consulate in Kiev first. Ukrainian analyst Olexandr Sushko says many applicants had to go to the French consulate nine times and wait in total 12 hours before getting their papers.

The paperwork is also worthy of Soviet-era bureaucracy. The applicant has to present a letter from his employer guaranteeing that he will keep his job open after the trip. Often you need to prove that you own certain property and how much money you have in the bank. You may have to prove that your cousin is really your cousin. Some EU embassies in the past have even demanded financial deposits to be left with them, which you can collect when you come back to Ukraine.

The Indian middle-man

The money issue has other, confusing aspects: in the near future the fee to enter the EU will be €35. But in order to even secure an interview at the German embassy you must first transfer €5 to the account of Indian visa facilitation firm VFS - at 100,000 people per year that's half a million euro. The Belgian and Dutch embassies have given VFS a monopoly on processing documents, so that applicants have to pay them €35 each on top of the Belgian and Dutch embassy fees. What is VFS doing to earn this money? It's daylight robbery - taking hard-earned cash from Ukrainians and giving it to the Belgian or Dutch state and its Indian commercial friends.

Ukraine is in a painful process of trying to reinvent itself after the Orange Revolution. As the political elite struggles for power, a growing middle class is looking for ways to grow its businesses and to find new partners in the west. Business and energy ties to Russia remain strong, but the EU has become Ukraine's number one trading partner. On Independence Square in 2004 Ukrainians showed they are ready to defend European values. The iron curtain may have gone, but instead we have a paper wall on our western border - just as impenetrable if you want to enter the EU legally, in a dignified way.

When we complain, the EU bristles. The German EU presidency even made a formal demarche to Kiev after it asked to monitor visa policy. The French ambassador to Kiev, Jean-Paul Veziant, said "The visa issue is a sovereign right of the state. Any 'control' on activity of the consulates on behalf of the state organs of the accreditation country is a violation of diplomatic practice."

Economic discrimination?

But its not just about ethics or values - it's about economics too. It could be argued that EU visa policy constitutes de facto discrimination of Ukrainian economic agents vis-a-vis their EU competitors, locking them out of the EU's internal market. Take the example of the international road freight and road transport sectors: instead of the normal practice of getting a one or one and a half year visa, Ukrainian lorry drivers transiting Germany get a single entry visa valid for one month, which can be obtained only if you get an invitation from a limited list of German companies.

The LvivInturtrans firm - which used be one of the top Ukrainian bus firms to France, Belgium and the Netherlands is now cutting some services by as much as 75 percent. "We waste three months and money to receive sometimes a single entry visa valid for one month. I pay a driver two, three months' salary and he can make only one trip to Paris and back. Then he waits another three months for the next visa," Vasyl Popovych, LvivInturtrans chief, said. The firm once lost €10,000 in one fell swoop, after it set aside a whole coach to take another delegation to the European Parliament, which failed to get visas. "Buses of EU companies with the same Ukrainian passengers pass EU border twice or three times quicker than we do. EU border guards are so nasty to our passengers that they use the EU buses despite the fact we have lower prices," Mr Popovych went on. "If it continues like this, then we just have a simple choice - either to sell our business to our EU competitors or go bankrupt. What is this, if not unfair competition?"

Of course it is. The EU's diplomatic corps and the Brussels institutions are well-trained in protecting the EU's political and commercial interests. But the big question remains: will the EU in the end be a winner, if it watches as a country of 48 million people on its border slides into bankruptcy, isolation and disenchantment with western ideals?

The author, Tatiana Silina, is a journalist for the Ukrainian newspaper, the Weekly Mirror