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Ukraine 2019: Elections, Reforms, and Civil Society

PAIC study trip for young academics from Germany to Kyiv

Between November 4th and 9th, 2018, eight young social scien­tists with a clear research focus on Ukraine had the oppor­tunity to gain a compre­hensive insight into the Kyiv think tank landscape, to examine current political processes and to discuss them with proven local experts. The main aim of the excursion was the strength­ening of German-Ukrainian synergies in the academic field and the identi­fi­cation of cooper­ation oppor­tu­nities with Ukrainian colleagues.

In 2019, two elections are scheduled in Ukraine: a presi­dential one in March 2019 and a parlia­mentary ballot in October 2019. In addition, Ukraine is currently under­taking a compre­hensive reform process with the fight against corruption, the energy sector and public admin­is­tration as key prior­ities for next year. The government work is system­at­i­cally assisted by civil society organ­i­sa­tions (CSOs) in an advisory capacity, which hence enjoy an increasing impor­tance in policy-making since the Revolution of Dignity in 2014. Reason enough to dedicate this year’s study trip to the Topic “Ukraine 2019: Elections, Reforms, and Civil Society”.

Throughout the study trip, our partic­i­pants came together with key organ­i­sa­tions in the areas of anti-corruption, energy sector, EU integration, security, electoral and decen­tral­i­sation processes to take their research work forward and to study the prevailing political devel­op­ments in Ukraine in depth. During the discus­sions, it became clear that a noticeable reform success will strongly determine Ukraine’s long-term course in Europe. Challenging reforms await both the Ukrainian elite and the citizens, which on the one hand have the potential to either sustainably secure the democ­ratic trans­for­mation of the country or to diminish popular support for European integration. Of particular impor­tance here is the estab­lishment of the High Anti-Corruption Court, which is expected to commence opera­tions in March 2019.

The outcome of the elections remains highly uncertain despite Yulia Timoshenko’s lead in current opinion polls. The high campaign costs have however assuredly elimi­nated the possi­bility for repre­sen­ta­tives of post-Maidan parties to get elected. In contrast, the CSOs visited during the study trip see local elections in 2020 as a more signif­icant oppor­tunity for young reform parties to extend their voter base. The main challenges for CSOs in this context are to provide compre­hensive infor­mation on political processes to a broad scale of constituents outside of major cities as well as to encourage active citizenship in the regions.

Civil society organ­i­sa­tions and in particular think tanks in Ukraine have become profes­sion­alized and their capac­ities have increased, also thanks to inter­na­tional support. Furthermore, the creation of the Reform Delivery Office within the Cabinet of Ministers in 2014 provided them with an improved access to decision-makers. With regard to the various actors and interests within Ukraine, CSOs will remain Europe’s most natural ally for the foreseeable future.

The study trip took place within the framework of the project “Platform for Analytics and Inter­cul­tural Commu­ni­cation” (PAIC) imple­mented by the Institute for European Politics (IEP, Berlin) in cooper­ation with the Ilko Kucheriv Democ­ratic Initia­tives Foundation (DIF, Kyiv) and the think tank initiative „think  twice UA“ (Kyiv) and with the kind support of the Federal Foreign Office in 2018 and 2019. The project aims at the creation of synergies between Ukrainian and German think tanks, the transfer of knowledge about processes in Ukraine to Germany as well as the promotion of profes­sional skills among Ukrainian think thanks.