MOSCOW, December 4. /TASS/. The EU has imposed a no-win concept of economic integration on Kiev, and has been placing increasingly more restrictions on the Ukrainian economy, thus showing that no one really wishes to see Ukraine in the EU, Viktor Medvedchuk, former leader of the Opposition Platform-For Life party, which is now banned in Ukraine, said.
Medvedchuk, who leads the Other Ukraine movement, recalled that the European Commission (EC) this year banned exports of Ukraine-grown wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower seeds to Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. This was followed by unilateral measures to ban imports of Ukrainian farm produce, primarily by Poland and Hungary. Slovakia declared its intention to extend its embargo. "Kiev was persuaded to accept a false and obviously hopeless concept of the European orientation of economic integration. An absolutely discriminatory free trade zone with the EU has been created. And all this is now complemented by a set of new restrictive measures against Ukrainian businesses," Medvedchuk wrote in his column on the Smotrim.ru website.
He drew special attention to the ongoing transport blockade against Kiev. For example, since November, Polish carriers have blocked the movement of truck traffic through the largest checkpoints on the Polish-Ukrainian border and intend to continue the blockade until February 1 of next year. Polish farmers have joined in. Similar action was taken by Slovakia. On December 2, Hungary banned entry for Ukrainian trucks coming from Slovakia. The members of the International Road Transport Union (IRU) of Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Lithuania issued a joint letter to the president of the EC calling for a reconsideration of the agreement providing for the liberalization of international freight transport with Ukraine, Medvedchuk wrote.
"What is this if not an economic war by the EU against Ukraine? In Ukraine, everyone is predicting catastrophic consequences for the economy should the transport blockade continue or be extended. The country is bound to see a surge in inflation, a slump in foreign trade and a decline in economic activity," Medvedchuk continued.
This year, said the leader of the Other Ukraine movement, has once again emphasized that no one really wants to see Ukraine as a member of the EU. "For Ukraine, the course towards European integration adds up to a loss on all tracks. First, a loss in economic terms: a complete surrender of its economic sovereignty. Second, a loss in political terms; the surrender of political sovereignty: Ukraine will no longer be governed from Kiev, but will become an impoverished and disfranchised [backwater] province of Europe. Third, the complete loss of its real identity, because the Western masters do not hide their intention to create a new people, who have lost all faith, morality and memory of the past," Medvedchuk concluded.