Trucks at the Poland-Ukraine border

E U magic.  Why should Ukraine want to integrate with the EU?  And vice versa?  These fundamental questions were the background to a recent visit to Kyiv by Tim Hitchens, Director, European Political Affairs (see 24 September).  I am reminded of some answers when I fly to Berlin to meet my wife and drive back to Kyiv in our small family car.  Because of a last-minute change of plan, I fly via Budapest, where the passengers must pass through a tough additional set of security searches and passport controls as we enter the Schengen area.  Thereafter, we are free to fly from Budapest to Berlin without showing our passports.  The next day, we drive from Berlin to Warsaw.  Crossing the River Oder without slowing down is an astonishing change from last time I was here, in 2006, when cars were backed up at the border controls.  It's impressive to see the reality of passport-free Europe extended east (and yes, I'm conscious of the irony of a Kyiv-based Brit talking about Schengen).  The contrast with the Ukraine-Poland border, with massive queues of lorries on each side of the frontier, is striking.

It's also impressive to see the road-building projects which the EU has financed in Poland.  Across the border in Ukraine, there are some major works in train too, financed in some cases by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.  Building better roads between east and west must be one of the most concrete ways imaginable to draw Ukraine closer to the European Union: when the road is flat and broad the kilometres melt away.  Now I know the drive to Berlin is feasible, it will be interesting to return in a year and see what progress has been made.

An EU-funded stretch of road in Poland