“Strict but fair,” Pieter Jan Wolthers, the Netherlands’ ambassador to Ukraine, says in summing up the Dutch spirit. This, he says, goes both for trade relations and politics, two delicate matters on which the Netherlands will play an important role in Ukraine’s future.
Most at stake is the decision on signing Ukraine’s political and trade association agreement with the European Union. This will be possible at an Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius in November, as long as Ukraine convinces EU members it is making progress on reforms. And it must happen fast, with EU officials quoting May as the deadline if talks are not to be stalled for years.
The Netherlands are known to be one of the toughest EU members when it comes to dealing with East European countries. The accession to the visa-free travel Schengen area for Romania and Bulgaria, two EU members widely criticized for backtracking on pre-accession promises, was notably vetoed by the Netherlands.
“A word is a word, it needs to be followed up by deeds,” said Wolthers, who served as ambassador to Romania before coming to Ukraine in 2009. The Netherlands liked the promises, he said, but if a country doesn’t follow up, it leads them to question whether it is mature enough to integrate further with Europe.
Asked how strict the May deadline really is for Ukraine, Wolthers said this is determined by the mechanics of the process. The EU’s foreign service prepares progress updates on Ukraine that serve as a basis for debate in the European Council and Council of Foreign Ministers, with one falling due in May. Then foreign ministers have to get some sort of support from national parliaments to sign the agreement.
With European institutions off on summer recess until September, this means the decision has to be practically ready in May, Wolthers said.
“You see a cultural difference between Ukraine and the EU. We take a lot of time. But when we get to a decision, we stick to it,” Wolthers said. “Here the Ukrainian parliament can do miracles in a short period of time, but sometimes they have to be reversed afterward.”
Ukraine made a big step in April when President Viktor Yanukovych pardonned former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko after over two years in prison, under what many in the West saw as politically motivated charges. But much more needs to be done to sway Dutch minds, Wolthers said, notably regarding electoral law, human rights and corruption.
“The release of Mr. Lutsenko is fine, but it has not changed the fundamental problems of the judiciary,” the ambassador said.
In both past and present, few if any European countries have been able to match the Dutch spirit of trade. With a population of just under 17 million, the Netherlands have the EU’s sixth biggest economy, on par with that of Indonesia, with 237 million people.
The country boasts Europe’s busiest port, Rotterdam, which is ranked ninth in the world by international patent applications in 2012, and by some measures ranks third in value of agricultural exports, behind the US and France. And all this with a territory just a third bigger than Kharkiv Oblast, poor quality soil, and a challenging climate.
According to Wolthers, the secret boils down to the Dutch spirit of competition, which has bred powerful industrial players. While energy giant Royal Dutch Shell is the most promiment, following the signing of a $10 billion shale gas deal with Ukrainian authorities, cooperation between firms from the two countries goes much further, covering virtually all sectors of the economy.
This starts from the banking sector, with ING Ukraine, and ends at baking products, with Zeelandia bakery chain. Dutch enterpreneurs have a long history in Ukraine, with mennonite settlers developing the milk industry in Dnipropetrovsk in the late-19th century.
Coming back from a large trade mission to Kharkiv, Wolthers said that interest is still strong, but that the ball is in Ukraine’s court.
If Ukraine doesn’t want to be overlooked, he said, openness and adjusting to global needs is necessary, as with the adoption of EU legislation that will move Ukraine closer to a Free Trade Agreement with the EU.
But it can also learn from Dutch philosophy, which places little weight on protectionist arguments, often used in Ukraine, in regards to business or culture. Language policy offers a particular lesson: almost all Dutch people speak excellent English, yet local literature and arts are holding strong.
The secret, according to Wolthers, is television. All shows are aired in the original version, with just subtitles in Dutch, meaning “every film one sees is a lesson free of charge.”
Ukraine’s politicians, few of whom have any foreign language skills, could also benefit. Ukraine has to make progress fast, Wolthers noted, and not knowing English is slowing the process down.
“They shouldn’t lose time in translation,” he said.
Kyiv Post editor Jakub Parusinski can be reached at [email protected], and on Twitter at @j_parus.
