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EU aid to post-Soviet states has 'limited' impact

January 17, 2009
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The EU's aid to Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus to help fight corruption, human trafficking and smuggling has made little impact, a report issued on Thursday, January 15, by the European Court of Auditors shows.

With only €166 million for 2000-2005 covering all three of the neighboring countries, the EU projects in the area of freedom, security and justice had "limited scope", the auditors found.

Most of the funding went to Ukraine and Moldova. Aid to Belarus – which was once dubbed the last European dictatorship by Washington – has been limited due to its lack of respect for democracy and human rights.

The only clear improvement seen by the EU projects was for border management. This was also where most of the money was spent. However, the long term goal of a modern system of border management "approximating European good practice" is still a long way off, the report concludes.

In the area of judiciary and good governance, the achievements were modest, especially in fighting corruption and adopting reformist legislation. "The Court considers that a fundamental, long term change in political will, mentalities, behavior and attitudes is required to achieve a significant reduction in this high level of corruption," the report states.

The European Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine (EUBAM), set up in September 2005 to help the authorities in Chisinau and Kiev to manage their 1222 km long common border was successful "from a technical point of view", the auditors said.

However, EUBAM was not a peacekeeping mission and could not solve the problem of the frozen conflict in Moldova's separatist region Transnistria, Stefan Arens, senior auditor said.

EUBAM found that Transdniestria was a safe haven for smugglers, human traffickers and tax evasion. Vehicles, fruit, vegetables and poultry meat were among those products hit by evasion of tax and customs duties.

For poultry meat alone, EUBAM calculated losses of up to €43 million for the Ukrainian state budget and up to €18 million for the Moldovan state budget in the period October 2005 to May 2006.

Lack of proper legislation as well as poor communication channels between customs guards, tax police and security services hindered efforts to tackle smugglers. In addition, most cases were not prosecuted as criminal infringements, but only as administrative infringements meaning the goods involved were not confiscated.

The EU mission also noted that due to the level of corruption in the prosecutors' offices and judiciary, smugglers are released and able to go back to smuggling.

REPORTER.MD

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