Euro-Atlantic integration and Ukrainian youth. Opinions and problems
N.Kovalenko
DonSUM
A.Schelkova
One of thedeterminant national foreign policy priorities is European and Euroatlanticintegration. Relationship between Ukraine and NATO was established in 1991,when Ukraine proclaimed sovereignty right after the fall of the USSR and joinedthe Council of Northenatlantic Collaboration, later renamed The Euro-AtlanticPartnership Council (EAPC).
Mainorganizations which make an activity in this range in Ukraine are: KyivNational Centre of Euroatlantic integration; Scientific-Informational ofInternational security and Euroatlantic integration in Donetsk NationalUniversity; Scientific Informational-Analytic Centre for NATO of PrycarpathskyNational University of V. Stephanyc and such centers over the Ukraine.
AtlanticCounsel of Ukraine (ACU), established in 1995, was one of the first publicorganizations which, according to its statute, “is engaged in questions ofprogressive integration of Ukraine into European and Euroatlantic structures ofcollaboration and security”. ATA comprises two youth structures: Youth AtlanticTreaty Association (YATA) and Association of Young Political Leaders.
Officialrepresentative of YATA in Ukraine is Youth Centre of Atlantic Council inUkraine (YCACU), public organization established within the framework of YouthProgram of Ukrainian Atlantic Council with a purpose of spreading among theyouth the information and propaganda the ideas of Ukraine’s integration intoEuropean and Euroatlantic structures. The main working activities of YouthCentre ACU are:
- informingand popularizing of the main objectives of the centre, including working withthe media;
- contributionto researching work, organization and consulting work regarding formation ofpolitical, economical, scientific, technical priorities as well as strategicinterests of Ukraine.
For theclarification of situation around Euroatlantic integration let’s compare somepoints of view on this problem. I took results of monitoring was carried outjointly by Scientific-Informational of International security and Euroatlanticintegration in Donetsk National University and ScientificInformational-Analytic Centre for NATO of Prycarpathsky National University ofV. Stephanyc in September 2008.
The researcheswere conducted in the framework of project “The development of methodologicalprinciples and organizational activities of informing the public of Donetsk andIvano-Frankovsk regions in the questions of Euroatlantic integration ofUkraine”.
The aims ofresearching were:
- to state the relations ofrespondents to the future international status of Ukraine;
- to compare the peculiarityof the perception of Euroatlantic integration in mentally different regions.
The results ofmonitoring are presented on diagrams below
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Pic.1.”What international status, for your opinion, is the best for Ukraine? ”