Polish Prime Minister: Ukraine Showed Willingness to go the European Way

KYIV, Ukraine, June 3, 2011 -

Head of the Polish government Donald Tusk believes that
Ukraine will sign an Association agreement with the European Union by the end
of this year under the presidency of Poland in the EU.

Prime Minister Tusk noted progress in Ukraine - EU relations
and expressed his belief that the chance to finalize the talks on them is
real. He also suggested that the signing of association and free trade zone
agreement will become a real milestone for Ukraine on its way to the EU.

"Ukraine, despite the change of leadership in the recent
elections showed the willingness to go the European way, and Europe
understands this better every time", said the Polish prime minister.

Tusk said that Poland during the EU presidency in the second
half of 2011 would support the introduction of the new EU countries from the
region of the Balkans and Eastern Europe

On May 17 this year Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski,
who came to Ukraine and toured the facilities currently being prepared for
the UEFA Euro 2012 football tournament, voiced his support for the
Association Agreement during a joint press conference held in Lviv (Western
Ukraine - Ed.) between the Polish and Ukrainian foreign ministers saying: "We
want to ensure that during the upcoming Polish presidency of the EU Council,
[the agreement] has made another leap."

Last week Poland hosted the 17th Central and Eastern European
Summit. The event was attended by the Presidents and high officials of 19
countries from Central and Eastern Europe and the US President, Barack Obama
as a special guest. During the Summit President Yanukovych stressed that
Ukraine was focused on implementing reforms and paid special attention to
economic transformation.

So far the new Ukrainian leadership identified and started
implementing the reforms in such key areas as taxation, 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.

For more information, please contact Maryna Khorunzha
+380-443324784 news at wnu-ukraine.com, Project Manager at Worldwide News Ukraine