Ukraine Has a Good Chance to Sign AA - Hungary's Foreign Minister

KYIV, Ukraine, May 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

"We think Ukraine has done a lot to meet the conditions voiced by the EU at the end of 2012," said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary János Martonyi at the VI Forum Europe - Ukraine in Budapest, reports lb.ua. The minister expressed hope that the Association Agreement (AA) between Ukraine and the EU would be signed and the countries still in doubt would eventually vote in favor of the AA.

Moreover, Minister Martonyi said that Ukraine was the main country in the Eastern Partnership. We are aware of the importance of the conditions the EU expects Ukraine to meet, said Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Andriy Olefirov to assert the country's course at the two-day forum.

The conditions Ukraine is expected to meet were debated at the 3209^th meeting of the Council of the EU on December 10, 2013. The Council reaffirmed the EU's engagement with Ukraine and stated that Ukraine's progress in eliminating selective justice and conducting reforms would determine the pace of engagement.

To further the reforms, in February 2013, Ukrainian government released a plan of 2013 priority measures regarding the European integration of the country. The document lists 71 legislative and managerial tasks for the country's executive branch in the areas of foreign affairs and security, justice, trade, and energy.

Some of the highlights of Ukraine's eurointegration progress in recent months include adoption of the law regulating the country's joining the UN Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Their Parts and Components and Ammunition, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. The document aims to create a complex international system of firearms trafficking control and promote cooperation between the participating parties.

In April 2013, Ukraine introduced legislative changes required by the action plan on visa liberalization with the EU. The changes brought national legislation into conformity with the standards of the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption and the provisions of the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (ETS. No 173). Now, criminal liability is assigned not only for giving or receiving a bribe, but also for the offer or promise of such undue advantage.