Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Denmark in Ukraine Uffe BALSLEV: “WE HAVE BROUGHT “FAIRY-TALES” OF THE STATE OF DENMARK TO UKRAINE”

For many Ukrainians Denmark is associated with the image of a fairy-tale country. Not only because this oldest kingdom in the world gave humanity the great author of fairy-tales Hans Christian Andersen and the magic Mermaid, who meets guests on the seaboard of Danish capital Copenhagen and has become the unofficial symbol of the country. What surprises most is the miraculous combination of monarchy, democracy, market economy and real socialism – the subject of national pride of Danes.

Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Denmark in Ukraine Uffe Balslev

That`s what our conversation with the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Denmark in Ukraine Uffe BALSLEV* was started with.

— Mr. Ambassador, I dare to suggest that there is at least one book of stories by Andersen in every Ukrainian family. What “fairy-tales” from present-day life of its country can be shared by the Embassy of Denmark in Ukraine today to make life of our people better and more comfortable?

— Danes are really very proud of their history and such world-wide known geniuses as the author of fairy-tales Andersen. He wrote his stories at the times of Romanticism 150 years ago — simultaneously with the light of Ukrainian people Taras Shevchenko. By the way, last weekend my wife and I visited Chernechaya Mountain in Kanev one more time. In such places one is captured by melancholy-reverent feelings. I thought that Danes didn`t take themselves as fairy-tale characters, living in a magic country just like Ukrainians don`t take themselves as slaves and ploughmen, described in Shevchenko`s poetry. On the contrary, Denmark is a very up-to-date state with the most developed technologies, efficient industry and functional social structure of high quality. All these spheres can successfully compete on the world market — for many years Denmark has been among the leaders in international rating researches in competitiveness, business climate and social — economic stability.

As to our modern “fairy-tales”, I will tell you three of them, the ones we brought to Ukraine.

The first one is connected with great amount of foreign investments in the spheres of industry, based on biomedical sciences and informational technologies. Many leading companies in this sphere place their head offices or research centers in Denmark. Big Copenhagen zone together with the southern Swedish city Malmo have been named “medical valley”. Our most famous pharmaceutical companies work successfully on Ukrainian market as well.

— If their work here is successful, it means they are satisfied with their partners, aren’t` they?

— Ukraine has rather substantial and optimistic base for development of pharmaceutics. Qualified employees are involved in the sphere.

— What do Danish specialists think about our prices for medications?

— There is a rule in Denmark: if a client comes to a drugstore and asks for a medication, a pharmaceutist is obliged to offer the cheapest one from a certain pharmaceutical group in the first turn. So that it is profitable for the customer and the competition is fair.

— What is the second fairy-tale about?

— It is about so-called “Danish design”. The Scandinavian style with its very beautiful, but plain details has fascinated the world with designers` creation in furniture, footwear, clothes, audio and video equipment.

And the third fairy-tale that we would like to share with Ukraine is about our high standards in energy saving. Long work on implementation of renewable sources of energy, let`s say energy of the sun, wind, biomass and the newest technologies in energy saving in industry and housekeeping are in their base. There are different statistic data in this regard, but these figures make me especially proud: during the last 25 years economics of Denmark has increased by 75%, but energy use rate remained at the level of zero. Due to efforts of the Government, the rate of renewable sources of energy in the total amount of its consumption is 17% and it is expected to reach one third by 2025. We should mention at that, that there are no nuclear or hydroelectric power stations in Denmark.

— Isn`t it total energy saving that has made bicycle one of the main type of transport of Danes? Doesn`t it seem a little weird for present-day Denmark — the third country in production of oil products in the European Union?

— That`s right, there are many bicycles in Denmark. It is economically profitable and practical type of transport in a flat country. If you are dressed properly, corresponding to the weather, even rain is not a problem, it doesn`t matter at all. For many Danes a bicycle is also means of healthy lifestyle. Everyday rides to work and back home give necessary physical exercise. It is especially important for those, who spend their working days by computers. The fact that buying a car we pay 180% tax definitely leaves certain trace on bicycle traditions.

But Danes are not less concerned about the energetic security of the world, change of climate and global warming on the planet. We were honored to host the 15th Conference of the member-countries of the UNO Convention on Global Warming — industrially developed countries tried to draw up a qualitatively new historic document, which would become the ambitious and progressive successor of the Kyoto Protocol to decently continue struggle for decreasing amounts of CO2 emission.

— The things you are talking about now are also directly connected with the global food crisis, which the planet is going to face. What is the opinion of Denmark in this regard — the country with agricultural production, which would be enough to cover needs of number of people thrice as much as the number of Danish population?

— Current high prices on corn market are the source of serious disturbance. However the crisis provides with many new opportunities and solutions. They are not made directly in Denmark. Agricultural politics is formed and implemented by mutual efforts of all the EU countries. Integrated policy in the sphere of agriculture has always been and remains one of the most successful in the European Union. By the way, it became one of the main motivations for joining the European Union in 1973. Now integrated European agro politics promptly adjusts to new circumstances to overcome crisis effects quicker.

In Denmark and in the European Union in general much attention is paid to cancellation of the obligatory politics of land “reservation”, which was adopted before, at the time of overproduction. Now more arable land will be used. That will enable to increase volume of output and naturally diminish pressure on agricultural market.

We can observe similar tendencies in the agricultural sector of Ukraine. Personally I think that cancellation of the moratorium on buying and selling of land, meant for agricultural purposes, would give a powerful impact to this process and would noticeably increase efficiency of agriculture in Ukraine in general. Although, of course, your country has to cover long way before it starts to use its agricultural potential to full extent. I hope that Danish innovations, technologies and investments will play their positive role here. For example, 13 big Danish pig farms function on the territory of Ukraine, following the most up-to-date technologies and principles of management. Many our farmers invest their energy, work and means into your Ukrainian projects. All these projects will keep developing, since cooperation between our countries in the sphere of agriculture is meant for long-term perspective.

— Company “Lego” has old traditions and great perspectives. Thanks to it, the world calls Denmark the capital of children`s toys construction sets. The company started to sell its amazing famous parks “LegoLand” in the English Windsor, in Germany, in the USA. How can Denmark deny its own beautiful and clever visiting card, which has become part of the image of your fairy-tale country?

— I agree that Lego is a wonderful toy, sophisticated construction set. I admired it in my childhood too. And “LegoLand” is really a good place for children`s recreation and entertainment. I`m not aware of the current business-plans of the company, but there is one thing I know exactly: for example, Danish airline “SAS Airlines” has sold network of its hotels and decided to concentrate its efforts on air transportation. I think in the conditions of market economy this step is quite logical for the company, which cares about its reputation and efficiency. So I think Lego will follow the same script: this modern and creative company is good at producing construction sets, and some other company will do better in managing its parks.

— You have just expressed very positive opinion about agricultural politics of the European Union. At the same time, Denmark doesn`t want to finally join the Euro zone, still considering reasonability of adopting Euro. On the other hand, Denmark didn`t make advances to Ukraine, when it closed its Embassy in Kiev. What is the reason of such half-hearted integration into Europe, such “occasional” bilateral relations?

— Closing of the Embassy in Kiev in 2002 was a short, but very sad period in the history of bilateral relations between our countries. It happened because of reduction of financing of Danish diplomatic service — 10 out of almost 90 our Embassies all over the world were closed at that time. Although Denmark is a rich country, but it is also a small country, which should observe strict economy. “The orange revolution” of 2005 and positive democratic reforms in your country partially influenced renewal of the diplomatic mission. Active development of our bilateral economic relations became a very important moment at that.

Denmark is a staunch supporter of multilateral international cooperation. We support the UNO in financial matters and problems of establishment of supremacy of law in the world. But if Denmark is not ready to join the European cooperation in the sphere of defense, it doesn`t mean that it is an isolationist. We consider that the NATO is rather successful in this sphere, we have established fruitful cooperation with this organization, so we don`t want to harm it and its authority.

Another reason of Danish scepticism as to the European Union is in the fact, that from the very beginning Danes had the feeling that a club of the rich at the expense of the rest poorer and poverty-stricken countries was created inside it. Despite everything, most our citizens want to become part of the EU, support its politics and, according to the last polls, are ready to join the common Eurocurrency.

— On May 1, 2004 Ukraine became a neighbor of the European Union, among the members of which there is Denmark. Evidently, it gives us extra opportunities for enlivening economic cooperation.

— It is hard for me to imagine at least one link in the sphere of trade, service or finance, which wouldn`t have huge potential for the European Union and Ukraine. It seems very important to involve Ukraine in multilateral trade forums for building the right optimal structure of our integrated trade. That is why we are very glad that your country, at last, became a member of the World Trade Organization in May 2008. It is supposed to increase trade turnover and stimulate economic growth in Ukraine by 1-2%. Besides, we expect successful completion of negotiations as to the free trade zone between the European Union and Ukraine. Harmonization of our customs codes will also become an important step for the both sides and will decrease level of bureaucracy and corruption.

— The capital of Denmark became the leader of the rating of the international journal “Monocle” and was entitled the city most appropriate for living in not long ago. What does Kiev lack fist of all to be like Copenhagen, in your opinion?

— I love Kiev. It is a wonderful city with good people, full of optimism. Kiev can compete with Copenhagen easily. But Danes are islanders in their nature. We live by the sea and are very attached to it in our souls. At home in Denmark my house is located just a few hundred meters from the beach and the affable sea, where my wife and I walk together along the picturesque coast several times a week. That is what I miss most of all here in Kiev.

— And what other principles along with the sea is in the basis of Danish model of prosperity in this oldest kingdom in the world?

— I think that the secret of success of our small country with scant natural resources is in the combination of friendliness of the state, which provides its citizens with free education on all its levels and general social service, faith in free competition and liberal market economy. Such system has its international name — flexicurity (derived from English words flexibility and security). It is based on flexible labor market, where labor force can move from the sphere, where it is no longer needed to the sphere, where it would be in demand. There is also a system of social guarantees and unemployment assistance.

“Alternative”, “protectionism” — Danish business dictionary has never contained such words. We are absolutely sure that free competition on the integrated play field is mutually advantageous. So we work hard to develop free trade in international organizations, such as the WTO, the EU, the UNO. Danish companies have always had to compete with international companies on both internal and external markets. They were forced to be constantly reformed and rationalized to remain efficient and competitive. Finally, everything depends on clear work. Judge yourself: the international non-governmental organization Transparency International, which assigns index of corruption to 180 countries, recognized Denmark along with Sweden and New Zealand the least corrupt country of the world. Unfortunately, Ukraine lowered its position from 118 to 134 in this rating.

Here is another fairy-tale about prosperity that we also try to share with Ukraine.

— Is it why your Embassy offers Ukrainians working places in Denmark, participating in the job fair “Kiev Post”? And how does such practice correspond to rather strict immigration laws of Denmark?

— Denmark is an open country. It has hosted many foreigners — political refuges and working immigrants during the last years. Most of them are happy to live in the State of Denmark and take it as liberal and tolerant society, where other cultures and religions are honored and respected. At the same time, our doors cannot be wide-open. It would be too much. Since Denmark attracts many people with high salaries, free education and health-care system, generous and thus expensive system of social maintenance.

But I cannot agree with the statement that our immigration rules are stricter than in other Western European countries. For example, at present time, we lack of highly-qualified workers — engineers, IT-specialists, doctors and nurses. That`s why we participate in the job fair. I have visited the Danish stand there and always met many positive, ambitious, energetic young Ukrainians. That is why I`m completely sure of the bright future of your country.

— There is interesting similarity in the history of our two countries: in 965 Danish King Harold christened his country, and two decades later in 988 King Vladimir christened Kievan Rus. Evidently, one of the many Christian traditions is connected with that — to light candles on especially important, ceremonial and ritual occasions.

However, I`ve seen something completely different in Denmark: candles, set in various translucent attractive little vases, are lit up everywhere — in hotel rooms, restaurants, city flats or country houses…

— You`ve noticed one of the main and specific Danish traditions. We call it “Huge”. It cannot be directly translated into a foreign language, but descriptively it means “to organize comfort”, “create comfortable atmosphere”.

I don`t think that this tradition has religious roots, although it is really very strong in the traditional Christian-Protestant country. Probably the old habit is connected with the fact that we live in the North and extremely value light because of Danish long and dark winters. In the middle of winter the sun rises very late, and goes down right after dinner. That`s why it is still dark when we go to work and it is already dark when we go back. And light is good remedy for winter depressions, especially when there is enough of it. Danes love and value light very much. It can be observed not only in candles, but in works of art, architecture.

— The small country of Denmark possesses the huge island of Greenland in the North. What benefits does it bring to Denmark?

— We don`t really possess Greenland. We are in a kind of alliance with it. Greenland is a community within the State of Denmark, which, starting from 1953, gradually broadened implementation of its own laws and its autonomy. Being in the structure of the Kingdom, 56 thousand of Greenlanders manage their internal affairs and many aspects of international relations independently. Let`s say, Greenland is not a member of the European Union unlike “Southern Denmark”. But we have common history. We respect each other and are happy that Greenland is part of the State of Denmark.

— Mr. Ambassador, many Ukrainian children think that Santa Clause comes to then from the distant snow-covered magic Greenland. What can you tell our children: does Santa Clause really live in Greenland?

— Of course, he does. Though some neighboring countries think that he lives there. But Danish people are sure that the residence of Santa Clause is located in Greenland. And we are extremely happy about it.

Media Center of Prime Excursion Bureau.

May 2010.

* The interview with Uffe Balslev was conducted before the end of his diplomatic mission in Ukraine.