What role should be played by civil society in Ukraine? One of the panelists tried to find out the answer to these questions during the International Visegrad Fund Discussion Panel as a part of International Conference “Development and Democracy – Thinking Ahead for Sustainable Development”.
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Moderator of the International Visegrad Fund Discussion Panel: Pavol Demes from German Marshall Fund of the U.S. asked the speakers: “Where is Ukraine from their perspective, what is present state of the civil society?” One of the speakers (responsible in past for the successful Public finance reform in Slovak republic): Ivan Miklos from National Council of the SR said: “The country is missing strong leadership / leaders to implement the reforms; there is not sufficient courage to push the reforms BUT the reforms MUST be done because society needs it! Ukraine is a society very much achieving below its potential – everywhere: in industry, agriculture etc. It needs reforms to create a functioning market.
Ivan Miklos also mentioned that right now the role of the civil society (CS) is strong; influential BUT – threat of the populism on the side of CS – what is and is not possible, what are real and not real reforms; They are one of the biggest opponents of the proposal of public finance reform. According to him the only option now is to carry out a “breaking reform”. Not to make small changes as system is highly corrupted and highly influenced by the existence of the oligarchs.
You can find more about the panel discussion and the entire Conference “Development and Democracy – Thinking Ahead for Sustainable Development” at the international conference booklet (on Pontis foundation website).