Ukrainian President: our Goal is a Functioning Democracy and European Standards

KYIV, Ukraine, May 31, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

The current government policy in Ukraine is to carry out the long overdue reforms, said Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych during the 17th Central and Eastern European Summit in Warsaw, Poland. "Ukrainian reforms are to establish a functioning democracy and introduce the European standards in all areas of life, with no exception" - stressed the Ukrainian Leader in his address to heads of Central and European countries and the press, who attended the summit.

This year's Summit was hosted by the President of Poland Bronislaw Komorowski and attended by the Presidents and high officials of 19 central and Eastern European countries. The US President, Barack Obama also attended the event. The Summit agenda included the discussion of common democracy experience and promotion of democratic values.

In his summit address President Yanukovych noted, that Ukrainian government is focused on implementing reforms and pays special attention to economic transformation.

Last year the Ukrainian leadership has identified and started implementing the reforms in such key areas as tax, administration, anti-corruption and pension. The administrative reform reduced the number of public servants by reorganizing the ministries and decreasing their number by a third. Shortly afterwards, the Law on Principles of Prevention and Combating Corruption in Ukraine was adopted and Ukraine has introduced the Law on Access to Public Information.

Also, Ukraine progresses on the Association agreement and the issue of the free trade zone with the EU, and is likely to complete EC roadmap project in September. It's been reported that 90 percent of positions in the Free Trade Agreement had been agreed upon.

The idea to gather the Central European Heads of State for regular informal meetings was born in 1993 during the European Festival in the Austrian city of Salzburg, which was attended by the Presidents of Austria, Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and a number of leading European politicians.

In 1999, Ukraine and its President were hosting the Summit in Lviv, welcoming Presidents of Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. In 2010, the meeting scheduled for May was cancelled due to the tragic death of President Lech Kaczynski of Poland.

President Yanukovych invited all participants for the next summit, which will take place in May 2012 in Ukraine.