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Ukraine will have to adapt its laws in line with 59 EU directives

KIEV, November 19, 21:58 /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine, which is seeking to sign an association and free trade zone agreement with the European Union, will have to adapt its laws to 59 regulations and directives of the European Union, Ukrainian Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Nikolai Prisyazhnyuk said on Tuesday.

“To ensure access to the European Union’s market for our products and to ensure their competitiveness there, we must harmonize our laws with relevant laws of the European Union,” he said at a roundtable meeting entitled “Ukraine’s Agrarian Sector and Paths of European Integration.” “Thus, we will have to adapt to 59 regulations and directives of the European Union listed in the draft association agreement with the European Union. At the same time, we hope for a considerable financial and technical assistance promised to us by the European side.”

The minister noted that Ukraine’s agrarian sector had already adopted 52 percent of international ISO standards, and the country’s food industry had adopted 50 percent of such standards. “It is quite possible for Ukraine to incorporate into its laws all European mandatory norms and requirements applicable in the food industry in a short time,” he pledged. “That is why I hope for further support to our efforts from members of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament), particularly in what concerns amendments to a number of Ukrainian laws on food safety.”

The amendments, in his words, would facilitate the use of sanitary and phytosanitary norms.