European practices in the reform of the diplomatic service of Ukraine

In June 2014, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavel Klimkin stated the need to reform the Foreign Ministry. At the same time, it was noted that the experience of EU countries will be taken into account, and the public will be widely involved in this process. At the end of March 2015, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reported the intentions of formation within 3 months of the concept of reforming the foreign policy.

In this context, in terms of optimizing the work of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Ukraine, a good example of certain issues may be foreign policy agencies of individual EU countries.

Priority reform areas

Analysis of the activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at this stage, comparison with the activities of foreign Foreign Ministry, allows to distinguish a number of necessary steps, the implementation of which can bring more efficiency and effectiveness in the field of foreign policy implementation of Ukraine:

1) The concept of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should be a public holistic document, which provides for the need for reform, shows the best options for leaving problematic places, and provides a presentation, which generally should be a new diplomatic service to solve current and future foreign policy tasks.

2) the concept of reforming the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine cannot be accepted without a new concept of Ukraine’s foreign policy, since the first is instrumental in relation to the second.

3) In the context of constitutional reform in Ukraine, the participation of parliament in the formation and implementation of foreign policy, as well as the Ministry’s reporting before the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, should be strengthened.

4) the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should establish and institutionalize cooperation with state and non -state analytical centers, public experts in the development and promotion of their foreign policy steps.

5) it is necessary to strengthen the foreign economic direction of work of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, to create real preconditions for “economization” of foreign policy in the form of an auxiliary institutional base, specific motivational mechanisms of entry into foreign markets, attracting foreign investments, diversified under individual target groups.

6) the Foreign Ministry should be ready to create a full -fledged direction of public diplomacy (cultural diplomacy) as an independent and integral tool for foreign policy.

7) the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should play a more active and systematic role in the formation of Ukraine’s information policy abroad, strengthen and provide a resource and information component of foreign diplomatic institutions.

8) The system of relations between the Ministry and foreign missions, increasing their independence in matters of political and administrative nature, deepening relations with different social groups outside the protocol contacts with foreign power structures.

9) strengthening of the coordinating interagency function of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in relations with other ministries of the Ukrainian government in the issue of formation and implementation of foreign policy.

10) In order to effectively perform the tasks of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is necessary to create additional affiliate structures, to which part of the functions, which is currently unsatisfactory, will be released in modern conditions.

11) it is necessary to optimize the system of involvement of new specialists and advanced training of diplomats.

12) restructuring of the budget model of ensuring the activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expansion of the operating component, budget “decentralization” of the ZSU.

Priority steps

The new diplomatic service should be based on strategic principles on the planned activity, openness and transparency, universality (classical diplomacy + economic diplomacy + public diplomacy), as well as decentralization of their powers.

Increasing the strategic and planned work of the Ministry.Reforming the diplomatic service cannot be embarrassed from the process of forming a strategic vision of the state’s foreign policy. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is only a tool for the implementation of foreign policy solutions and tasks. Without a clear understanding of the new tasks facing the country in military and peacetime, reforming the policy tool is simply a waste of time.

For the Ukrainian department, the practice of Poland and other countries of the Visegrad group on the introduction of many years of foreign policy strategies would be interesting. In March 2012, the Council of Ministers of Poland approved the priorities of foreign policy for 2012-2016, the first long-term strategy. In addition, the annual basis is developing a foreign policy document, which has limited access and aimed at coordinating international cooperation of other ministries in government. The Department of Foreign Ministry of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland is engaged in the development of these software documents.

Similarly, Slovakia, which prepared a medium -term foreign policy strategy by 2015, went similar to the formation of a medium -term program document. The public document “Foreign and European Policy Directions” is also being prepared annually. At the end of the year, there is mandatory public reporting on the results of policy implementation.

The main algorithm for the construction of software documents:

1) a long -term government program;

2) a long -term Foreign Ministry program;

3) annual definition of foreign policy directions;

4) annual public reporting.

Strengthening the economic component of foreign policy.Currently, most foreign policy strategies of the Visegrad Group States are focused on strengthening foreign economic activity and trade in their countries.

The new Hungarian model of economic diplomacy, which is focused on the achievement of ambitious goals, deserves special attention. In particular, in Hungary, the discovery program was recently adopted, where the economic expansion and transformation of Budapest into a European Eastern business platform are one of the main priorities. It is interesting that economic diplomacy is taken care of by the Deputy Minister (State Minister), namely the Ministry also received several auxiliary institutions designed to provide a more systematic approach. Thus, during the implementation of the Foreign Ministry of Foreign Ministry, the Foreign Ministry coordinates and directs the activities of the following institutions: the Hungarian Trade House, the Hungarian Investment Agency and the Exim Bank. All of them are involved in the integrated implementation of the Government Program “Opening to the East”. Accordingly, the state creates a set of financial incentive mechanisms, which are designed to increase the exports of Hungarian small and medium -sized businesses, attracting additional foreign investments.

The selection of public (cultural) diplomacy into a separate global instrument of the Ministry, which should be implemented at a level with classical diplomacy.

A serious attitude to public diplomacy may be evidenced by the existence of appropriate independent departments of public (cultural) diplomacy in the countries of the Visegrad Group, which have their relevant programs and operational budgets for the implementation of the assigned functions. In 2014, the post of Deputy Minister (State Minister) on cultural diplomacy with the relevant office was introduced in Hungary. The usual practice in these countries is annual reporting on the results of public diplomacy.

“Decentralization” of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, creation of a network of affiliated structures for the implementation of certain aspects of foreign policy.

Such structures can significantly increase the level of “soft power” that the ministry can potentially generate. As an example, we can give tools of public (cultural) diplomacy – national institutions. Polish, Slovak and Hungarian institutes are an integral part of the foreign policy of these countries of the Visegrad Group.

External Information and Analytical Support for Diplomatic Service Activities

An example of EU countries shows the feasibility of creating analytical centers in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which are engaged in strengthening the analytical basis of the diplomatic service, as well as the popularization of foreign policy steps of these agencies. The presence of these centers for partial support of the state and partial self -financing has quite positive results for the activities of the ministries themselves and their foreign missions:

availability of additional expert and official sources of information about events in specific regions of the world, where the state has its foreign policy;

testing of individual foreign policy steps at the stage of their design through cooperation with the external expert environment;

providing information about foreign policy steps and concepts of the country;

conducting academic and practical expert measures with the participation of domestic and foreign foreign policy specialists;

preparation of complex and thematic research on the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other public authorities, which is part of the elements of implementation of the country’s foreign policy;

publication of analytical materials on the issues of international relations and foreign policy;

Participation and representation of interests of the country in expert international events, participation in international research consortiums.

The existence of appropriate institutions is a mandatory feature of the state that tries to produce an independent foreign policy that relies on predictability, ambitiousness and proactivity.

The closest and most demonstration examples is Poland, where several analytical centers are aimed at developing foreign policy. The Polish Institute of International Affairs, affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Center for Eastern Research, which are currently operating under the government, are striking examples of powerful analytical resources that are used to enhance the influence of Polish diplomacy. For example, the Polish Institute of International Affairs conducts up to 50 expert measures a year, including international experts, which involve the best foreign experts, publishes periodicals with the analysis of individual foreign policy steps. The Center for Eastern Research is a direct participant in the development of government practices in the field of foreign policy. By the way, it was the experts of the said institution who were one of the authors of the policy of the Eastern Partnership, which in 2009 became the EU policy on the Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus.

An additional significant positive from the “delegation” of individual powers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the complete or partial financial autonomy of created organizations, which can attract external technical and donor resources for the implementation of the tasks. In the context of the economic crisis in the country, such work can be even more effective than simple stay within one state budget with trends to reduce costs.

It is undoubted that the specialized but directly independent of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the analytical institution should also be created in Ukraine, if the state leadership really considers it necessary to focus on a thoughtful foreign policy course.

HA. Maxak, President of the Polissya Fund of International and Regional Research,

Coordinator of the experts of experts in the field of foreign policy “Ukrainian Prism”