Viktor Yushchenko, candidate in the upcoming Ukrainian presidential elections, makes some interesting points about the future of the Ukraine, and worries concerning the expanded European Union.
He states:
While welcoming the enlargement of the European Union, Ukrainians are anxious about European integration halting at our western frontier and in fact creating a new dividing line.
Our neighbors in Belarus, Moldova and Russia feel the same way. Our anxiety is also shared by Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and the Baltic states – neighbors who understand the gravity of problems resulting from the incomplete unification of Europe and the emergence of a new phenomenon: a bipolar Europe
There is an interesting concept. What is also interesting is that Ukraine has a population of some 48 million people. A healthy injection of people in the future, for Europe’s aging population. A bipolar Europe is a worry, but Europe really has to decide where exactly Europe stops and Asia/Middle East begin.
Is there ever a case for EU borders extending all the way to the Eastern parts of Belarus and Ukraine? Turkey will almost certainly join within the next 6 years, meaning that an EU country would border Iraq – a strange thought indeed.
It’s all quite hard to call, but important decision on the future expansion of Europe will have to be made.