This prompted the International Monetary Fund to suspend its multi-billion lifeline for Ukraine. Even though the country’s economy is contracting at a rate of over 15 per cent and the government is seriously short of cash, Yushchenko signed off a 10 per cent hike in public sector salaries in October. Both are vying for the presidency in the January 2010 elections, and have spent more time campaigning than governing. President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko are not on speaking terms. No wonder: Ukraine has been in a political crisis for years. This year, Ukraine has also failed to act on promises it had made to the EU to raise gas prices, and make its energy business more transparent – not to speak of various other changes that the country would need to implement if it was serious about integrating with the EU. In creating a false alarm, Kyiv has shown complete disregard for itsreputation in Europe.
#Vicious circle 2009 full#
This suggests that the gas tanks had been close to full all along.
Experts say that Russia could have only pumped about 6-7 billion cubic metres between May and August. At the end of August, Kyiv declared that its reservoirs, which hold about 27 billion cubic metres of gas, were full. The feared gas shortage probably never existed. It lined up key financial institutions including the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to lend Ukraine billions of dollars to buy gas and reform its energy sector.
The European Commission – worried about a repeat of the January 2009 crisis that left parts of Europe in the cold for two weeks – sprung into action. Kyiv (and Moscow) warned in May and June 2009 that gas levels in Ukrainian storage tanks were too low to guarantee uninterrupted supplies during the winter. Ukraine’s most recent own goal consisted of Kyiv apparently lying to Brussels about the situation in its gas sector.
“Today, EU governments have stopped caring.” But only two or three years ago, “the majority of EU governments were in favour of joining,” said one European Commission official dealing with the country. EU countries like the Netherlands and Germany have always opposed offering Ukraine a ‘membership perspective’. As a result, it has fallen from the EU’s grace. Ukraine, the largest of the East European countries hoping to join, has broken every one of those principles over the past two years. But countries that managed to accede in recent years had done so by observing a few simple guidelines: cultivate friends among EU governments, be prepared to make painful sacrifices and, above all, show patience and good faith. There is no rule for how a government desiring to join the EU should make its case.
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