Not everyone gets the chance to be the right man, in the right job at the right moment. Oleksandr Chaly, a former academic, lawyer and then diplomat, may be just such a person. Moreover, his professional development has coincided with the development of his country. The two are running together along the road to European integration, which Chaly now has the mandate and backing to pursue.
Chaly was born in 1954, in Vinnytsa region. After finishing law school, he stayed on as a lecturer. In the mid 1980s, he did an "unforgettable" stint teaching in Guinea Bissau, where "I saw practically everything that I later would see in the Soviet Union, during Perestroyka," he said during an interview to the UO.
Upon his return, he decided to open a law firm, one of the first in Ukraine. This led to a position as a legal advisor with the Foreign Ministry, a time in Chaly's life that he refers to as "fantastic" because "we were working practically from a clean slate, that is, we took responsibility for all decisions that we made. There was no bureaucracy."
In 1995, he was appointed Ukraine's ambassador to Romania and became a full-fledged diplomat. Three years later, under Borys Tarasyuk, Chaly became first deputy foreign minister.
It was in this position that he got his first real European diplomatic experience, serving as Ukraine's permanent representative to the Council of Europe.
So now, looking back, what does he call his profession? Teaching, law, or diplomacy? "I think that each of these directions contributed to the next," says Chaly, who left the diplomatic service in May 2003, after publicly criticizing Ukraine's joining of the Moscow led Single Economic Space. The decision to quit "was my wish," he said.
Less than a year later, in addition to being a member of several public organizations, Chaly is the vice president of a consortium called Industrial Group, a position he has held since last September.
What does Industrial Group do? "Its goal is to promote Ukrainian business, primarily in the EU," particularly the metallurgical business, says Chaly: "I like it very much, because I am actually doing what I used to and what I really believe in, which is Ukraine's integration in the EU."
A major player in Ukrainian metallurgy is the Industrial Union of Donbass, a large holding company that incorporates plants like the Alchevsk Metallurgical Works, the Dnepropetrovsk Metallurgical Plant, the Donetsk Metallurgical Plant, etc.
The IUD, headed by Serhiy Taruta, also has interests in Europe, like the Dunaferr steel mill in Hungary. Such facilities help it to get around restrictive EU tariffs against Ukrainian imports. Like Chaly, the holding company has been a consistent proponent of European integration.
Chaly doesn't conceal the common interest. If Ukraine is to join Europe, which he has long advocated, it needs to take specific steps rather than counting on vague promises. Economic integration is both real and a two-way street.
"We invest in the European Union," he stressed, quoting a figure of $250 million in 2004 alone. But it's not simply a matter of who is giving money to whom. Ukraine also stands to gain, for example, by attracting capital from the West.
Moreover, since independence, the former Soviet republic has helped bolster European security and demonstrated impressive strong economic growth. More recently, during the Orange Revolution, the Ukrainian people proved to the world that they have the political will to demand democracy.
"Therefore, I think (Ukrainian President Viktor) Yuschenko, who is going to give a speech in the European parliament tomorrow (January 26th), should submit Ukraine's application for EU membership while he is at it," said Chaly.
Things, of course, are not that simple. Europe, primarily France and (possibly to a lesser extent) Germany, won't accept Ukraine because it is afraid of Russia, the former diplomat explains - notwithstanding the efforts of recently accepted members like Poland and Lithuania. Up until just recently, Western leaders had accused Kyiv of corruption and feet dragging. But now that Yuschenko is president, the rhetoric from Brussels is still lukewarm.
The fear is that Moscow might cut off energy supplies or again become a military threat, Chaly argues, but gas and oil must go through Ukraine, while a democratic and prosperous neighbor to the south would be a positive influence on Russia.
Then there is the issue of trade again. For example, Ukraine's metallurgical industry needs to get around European trade barriers, which due to EU expansion now apply to more countries. Metal is one of Ukraine's biggest exports, but EU quotas comprise only a fraction of Donbass's potential.
Brussels says it wants Kyiv to remove the export tariff on its scrap metal. Chaly says this would lead to a deficit of the Ukrainian metal industry's primary source of raw materials.
"As the EU expands, it must take responsibility in relation to other countries and not behave like a bull in a china shop," he emphasizes.
However, neither mutually-beneficial and fair trade practices nor farsighted geopolitics represent the main reason why Ukraine should be welcomed in Europe.
According to Chaly, "the European Union isn't expanding because this is an economic priority, but because this is, first and foremost a political priority, because the European Union wants to preserve its European identity."
And Ukraine is precisely where "the new concept of a future and united Europe is being born," he says: "Formally we have the right to join ... if the EU doesn't want to become a new democratic empire." But it's not even so important that Ukraine gets membership. It can still continue integration like Switzerland or Norway have done, an approach that Chaly "personally" supports.
"What is the problem with the European Union's attitude toward Ukraine? The EU tells us neither yes nor no. It is holding our relations in limbo. This was possible 10 years ago. But we have grown out of short pants," he says.
The new, more mature Ukraine had its debut before international television audiences during the Orange Revolution - a much needed improvement to its tattered image (i.e. Chernobyl, military disasters, deaths of journalists). But is there a chance that the opposition's victory could cause a backlash or, even worse, divide the country between pro-Russian and pro-Western camps?
"There is no real threat of separatism in Ukraine," says Chaly. However, the loss of Ukrainians' faith in Western ideals is just as much the fault of Europe, which still refuses to give a "definite" answer to Ukraine.
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