There are plenty of lessons for Ukraine to learn from the Visegrad group of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Czech Republic which joined the European Union in 2004. All four countries, which together form the world’s 15th biggest economy, have overcome a tough transformation of the economy, state administration and other sectors on their way to the European integration.
Slovakia, for example, can boast of a very successful decentralization of power, one of the key reforms on the agenda of the Ukrainian government at the moment. Some 400 functions, including health care and education, were delegated from state to local authorities as a result of the reform, according to Grigoriy Mesezhnikov, president of Institute for public affairs in Slovakia.
“Thanks to the reform of local self-government the political and social tension, which was emerging in the regions with prevailing number of residents of Hungarian origin, was removed, “ Mesezhnikov said at the round table organized by the Democratic Initiatives Foundation in Kyiv on Nov.24. “As a result, nowadays Slovakia is a stable democratic state.”
Decentralization of the tax system was another important element of the reform. Tax revenues in Slovakia are now divided between the state authorities and local governments based on a certain formula. Only 12 percent of the total goes to the central authorities, and more than 65 percent goes to 3,000 local governments responsible for the cities and villages, and another 22 percent goes to eight local governments responsible for the regions, according to Mesezhnikov.
Poland can offer an example of a successful economic transformation for Ukraine, Bartosz Radzikowski, expert of CASE center for social and economic research in Poland, said. Between 2004 and 2013 his country had a whopping 30 percent growth in exports, 10 percent decrease of unemployment rate (from 20 percent to 10 percent), almost 45 percent growth of annual income of households (from 8,500 euro to 15,400 euro) and 4 percent annual growth of gross domestic product to $517.5 billion in 2013.
“The best medication for corruption is privatization,” Radzikowski says. Aside from that, Ukraine needs deregulation, while cultivating the spirit of entrepreneurship and showing benefits of private sector to young people is another important issue, he said. An astounding 99 percent of business in Poland are small companies which employ less than 50 people and this economic model can work for Ukraine, according to Radzikowski.
Ukraine also needs to change its system of state administration, and involvement of non-governmental organizations in this process is very important, said Vaclav Krizh, expert of Center for European policy in Czech Republic. “In the area of transparency you can’t rely on politicians to be the ones fighting the most for it,” he said.
Laszlo Csaba Pap, deputy head of mission of the embassy of Hungary in Ukraine, said that the Visegrad alliance is supporting Ukraine in its strive for changes and European integration. “The group of four countries is solidary with the Ukrainian people. There is big trust based on our common historical experience which taught us to collaborate,” he says.
Kyiv Post staff writer Anastasia Forina can be reached at [email protected]
