Ukraine is Closest to EU Standards Than Other Former Soviet States - Polish Ex-President

KYIV, Ukraine, January 11, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

If one were to compare Ukraine with its neighboring countries, Belarus or Russia, the situation in the former remains, undoubtedly, the closest to the European standards, said the former President of Poland Aleksander Kwaśniewski. The statement was made by the politician during his interview to the Polish media in Brussels, reports PAP.

The third Polish president stressed that the October parliamentary elections made it obvious that Ukraine had reached a state which doesn't exist in other former Soviet Union countries. He talked about Ukraine's united opposition which is one of the strongest and which doesn't exist in Russia, Belarus or the countries of Central Asia. He also talked about a much higher level of civil freedoms and freedom of press.  In addition, he mentioned the reforms which, not without an effort, are still being implemented by the Ukrainian government.

Less than three months ago, on October 28, 2012, Ukraine held parliamentary elections. The leading Party of Regions received the support of 30 percent of the voters. The parties that are considered in the opposition and took the seats in the Ukrainian legislature were Batkivshchyna, liberal UDAR and the far right Svoboda with 25.54, 13.96 and 10.44 percent of the votes accordingly. The fifth and final party that crossed the election threshold of five percent was the Communist Party of Ukraine with 13.18 percent of the votes. Suffice to say that having acknowledged some violations during the election process, the monitoring mission from the European Parliament reckoned that the parliamentary elections in Ukraine were better than the ones in other post-Soviet countries that the EP had observed.

As far as civil freedoms are concerned, "there is a complete freedom of self-expression and no censorship in Ukraine," stated the Head of the Delegation of the EU to Ukraine Jan Tombinski in October, 2012.  At the same time, he said, there was an issue regarding the ability of citizens to express their views through media.

In September 2012 report Freedom House gave free internet freedom status to Ukraine giving it the best internet freedom result among the researched CIS countries.

In 2012, Ukraine has been actively working on the electoral law, judiciary and constitutional reforms.