EU urges Ukraine's leaders to stop feuding

THE EUROPEAN Union has urged Ukraine’s leaders to end their long-running power struggle to help the country through its deepening economic crisis, as they seek to persuade the International Monetary Fund to release the latest tranche of a €12.1 billion emergency loan.

After meeting President Viktor Yushchenko and prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, top EU officials said the feuding pair should co-operate to help Ukraine combat plummeting industrial output, rising unemployment, and the impact of sharp falls in the local currency and stock market.

“The duty of all responsible politicians is to work together for the common good of [their] country,” said European Commission chief José Manuel Barroso. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana expressed “serious concern” about Ukraine, where Mr Yushchenko and Ms Tymoshenko have been at loggerheads since jointly leading the 2004 Orange Revolution, which set Ukraine on a pro-western path and raised tension with Russia.

Mr Solana said the EU’s fears stemmed from “the severe impact of the global financial crisis, and the ongoing difficulties on the domestic political scene. The country’s current financial crisis was not a matter for Ukraine alone, but also had wider implications, including for the EU.”

On a visit to Brussels, Ukrainian deputy prime minister Hrihoriy Nemyria said a struggling Ukraine could destabilise its EU neighbours, and asked for the bloc to allow Kiev to access a €25 billion fund created to help EU members that do not use the euro currency. Stressing that 30 per cent of the Ukrainian banking system belongs to western European banks, Mr Nemyria spoke of “a de facto interdependence that requires creative thinking and a willingness . . . to use the instruments and the resources that are currently available for [EU members] Hungary, Latvia”, for non-EU states.

Hungary and Latvia have secured IMF loans and money from the EU emergency fund. Ukraine has received the first tranche of an IMF loan, but is now redrafting its budget and trying to pass several Bills to persuade the fund to release more cash.

Mr Nemyria said that if the EU neighbourhood was destabilised the impact would also be felt in the EU.

The EU has strengthened its “neighbourhood” policy by endorsing €600 million in potential aid to members of its “eastern partnership”: Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Moldova.