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EU urges Ukraine to step up actions on way to Europe

Ukraine confirmed the commitment to European integration “in deed and not in name” by carrying out reforms, the prime minister said

KIEV, February 7 (Itar-Tass) – Ukraine should take more active actions to integrate into the European Union, European Commissioner for the Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fule said.

During the meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov and members of the Ukrainian government on Thursday, Fule said there was a historical opportunity to achieve the common goal: to sign the Association Agreement.

Earlier, the European Commissioner said he is convinced that the signing of the Association Agreement would help Ukraine become a democratic European state.

Azarov said Ukraine’s policy to European integration remained unchanged. “Recently Ukraine has stepped up the efforts to sign an Association Agreement with the EU.”

Ukraine confirmed the commitment to European integration “in deed and not in name” by carrying out reforms, the prime minister said.

He noted that Kiev’s roadmap for European integration should lead to signing an Association Agreement between both parties. “Before the agreement is signed, several responsible steps should be taken,” Azarov added.

To this end, the prime minister told the European Commissioner that in recently “several positive steps have happened in Ukraine – the investment climate has improved and administrative pressure has reduced”.

In his words, Ukraine “is ready to carry out further reforms”. Among priorities, he named the reforms of police and the prosecutor’s office, and “to make judges more independent”.

Fule has begun the two-day visit to Ukraine to meet with government members, leaders of the parliament’s committees, students and professors of the Kiev-Mogilev Academy.

Special attention will be paid to preparations for the Ukraine-EU summit due to take place in Brussels on February 25 and Kiev’s readiness to fulfil preconditions in order to sign the Association Agreement with the European Union. They include measures to carry out the election and juridical reforms based on the supremacy of law and other important internal reforms within the Ukraine-EU Association Agenda.

Ahead of the visit to Kiev Fule said his purpose was to study the situation Ukraine before the summit.

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