European Integration and the Processes of the Internal Transformation: The Prospects for Ukraine and the Portuguese Experience / Edited by V.A. Dubovyk and L.N. Rodrigues. – Odessa: Astroprint, 2011.
Twenty years have already past since the break-up of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. This gave an opportunity for Europe to overcome the historical split and move forward in establishing new common European community. Ukraine was one of those actors which emerged on the dynamic eastern border of the wider Europe and sought to be a part of the European family of nations. However despite the fact that all Ukrainian governments since 1991 declared their European choice, the Ukrainian policy of European integration was inconsistent. Of course this could be explained by objective reasons taking into account the scale of those problems and challenges which the new country faced in all fields of its economic and political transformation. But in addition the bad strategies, wrong decisions and mistakes took place.
Portugal is located on the other side of the European continent from Ukraine. It became a member of the European Economic Community relatively late as it joined EEC only five years before the break-up of the Soviet Union and emergence of independent Ukraine. Portugal, like Ukraine, also had difficult experience and complicated past. So Portugal had to fulfill uneasy tasks. However, unlike in Ukraine, there was a better understanding in Portugal but also outside of this country that sooner or later it should become a part of the all-European economic system.
This collective study brought together a group of prominent Ukrainian and Portuguese scholars to analyze current relations between Ukraine and EU as well as to consider Portugal’s experience in relations with EU. This analysis is going to help solving some problems related to the Ukrainian policy of the European integration. Ukrainian and Portuguese authors have offered their perspectives on how to deal with the existing challenges, discussed the future of the European integration process and the role of Ukraine and Portugal in it.
An interdisciplinary approach had been employed in the attempt to consider Europezation process and assess how it manifests itself within institutional framework in EU and, also, in countries that have proclaimed their European choice. Studying the broad spectrum of the particular cases which refer to two different countries the authors agreed in their analysis of the problems which are considered as priorities for the whole Europe: the democratic society building, the economic transformations, security and many others. Thus this collection may be considered as a modest contribution towards the discussion of the most important issues in relations between Ukraine and EU, Ukraine and Portugal, Portugal and EU. Perhaps, it could make Ukraine a bit closer to the full European Union membership and would facilitate the cooperation and dialogue between Ukraine and Portugal.
