Foresight on possible scenarios of Ukraine’s European integration was held in Kyiv

The EU-funded project “Communicating EU for Ukrainians” (CEU4U) organised a foresight session “The Road to the European Union” in Kyiv to explore possible scenarios of Ukraine’s European integration and to provide answers to the following questions: what should the main stakeholders do, what is the value of joining the EU, and how do Ukrainians and Europeans imagine each other.

According to the Moderator, co-founder of the Civic Platform “Nova Krayina” (“New Country”) Valeriy Pekar, the event was held in the format of a foresight – “an active study of the future by people who are directly responsible for creating this future.”

V. Pekar noted that the topic of this foresight is related to Ukraine’s accession to the European Union. “Obviously, joining the EU is very desirable for many Ukrainians, but this process will be neither easy nor quick. There are numerous challenges, risks, and barriers on this path. There may be different scenarios. The purpose of the foresight is to study the key factors that influence this process, can contribute to it, slow it down, accelerate it, stop it, facilitate it, as well as study the scenario space, understand what the scenarios can be, and what we should do so that only ones desired for Ukrainians come true “, the moderator noted.

Event participants included government officials, economists, sociologists, political scientists, lawyers, cultural experts, media experts, ecologists, leaders of business associations, specialists in international relations, futurologists, energy specialists, educators, healthcare specialists, journalists, artists. During the discussion, they explored the goal, subjects, problems, trends, scenarios, “jokers”, dreams, doubts, challenges and risks on Ukraine’s path to the European Union.

The event was held at Ukrinform within the communication campaign of the EU Delegation to Ukraine “Together we are Europe“.

As reported, on June 23, the heads of states and governments of the European Union decided to grant Ukraine the status of a candidate country for EU membership. Simultaneously with the approval of the candidate status for Ukraine’s EU accession, Brussels encouraged Kyiv to continue pursuing reforms. In her turn, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, stressed on September 14 during her State of the Union Address that [Ukraine’s] ‘future is in [the European] Union”.