Political Economics: As Ukraine Looks to Its Future, Skip the European Union.

"Ukraine in recent decades was simply too Soviet-esque to present itself as a plausible, worth-defending aspirant to join democratic Europe -- too politically chaotic, too economically sclerotic, too corrupt. Western overtures to Ukraine appear to some Westerners to have done more damage to the West's interest than to Russia's. Witness allegations that Ukraine's parasitic corruption may have found a willing host in the person of one Hunter Biden.

It's immediately clear why joining EU for Ukraine won't happen soon.

Though the EU has welcomed many new members from the former Eastern bloc over the past two decades, it has never taken on a challenge like Ukraine. Most began at a sort of institutional "year zero." Their Communist governance was in tatters and a replacement state wasn't yet entrenched. Ukraine, on the other hand, comes with three decades of embedded Soviet-style oligopoly and corruption that must be overcome. This matters because the EU's reform benchmarks carry no enforcement mechanism other than the prospective member's own enthusiasm to comply.

Nor has the EU in its modern form ever welcomed a new member state whose unsettled borders were, or could become, a source of conflict with a hostile major power.

These are only two of the many big problems facing Kyiv's membership, which suggests that whatever buzz emerges from next week's London confab, EU membership isn't likely to be a key part of Ukraine's plan. This is no bad thing. Advocates of EU accession inside and outside Ukraine treat the idea as a convenient shorthand for "reform," but it's not obvious that adopting French or German statism as filtered through Brussels is the type of reform that would best help a country like Ukraine. Possibly the opposite.

Ukraine's challenge will be to develop -- and then implement -- some vision of itself that can vindicate the Ukrainians who have suffered so much and inspire the investors and donors who will be so important to rebuilding. It's not too early to start working out what that vision should be.” [1]

  We are not saying it here, but Ukraine is like Turkey - too big for us and different from us. After all, we caused the Maidan by lying to the Ukrainians that they would be accepted into the European Union and all would drive Porsche. What a disappointment... Now they, like the Turks, will move to the side of poisonous nationalism. We have another problem at the border of the European Union.

1. Political Economics: As Ukraine Looks to Its Future, Skip the European Union. Sternberg, Joseph C.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 16 June 2023: A.15.