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President Jerzy Buzek concludes his visit to Kyiv - 21-22 December

Kyiv -
22/12/2009

Today, Tuesday 22 December, European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek concluded his official visit to Ukraine. He was invited to Kyiv by his counterpart the Speaker of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada Mr Volodymyr Lytvyn. During the visit President Buzek met with all leading political actors, President Viktor Yushchenko, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and the leader of the opposition Viktor Janukovych.

Furthermore, President Buzek participated in a roundtable discussion with representatives of non-governmental organisations and a debate with students of international relations from the Taras Shevchenko University.

Summarising his visit President Buzek said:" I have just concluded a successful official visit. During these two intensive days I had constructive and open exchanges-of-views with all the leading Ukrainian political figures. We discussed the state-of-play of EU-Ukrainian relations and our view of their future.  

In Kyiv I expressed loud and clear the solidarity of the EU with Ukraine in these difficult times of financial turmoil. I also took the opportunity to stress the necessity of free, fair and transparent presidential elections in January. Adapting those principles in this ballot will be important for the future of Ukraine.

A further point of my discussions was the need for stepping up reforms. From my own experience as Polish Prime Minister in a time of economic change, I know how hard and unpopular it can be to bring about real reforms. However, later those tough decisions are understood and appreciated, as necessary steps for the overall good of the country.

The faster and the more consistent the needed reforms are implemented, the more the EU and international institutions, like IMF, can help Ukraine with supporting measures. I reminded my interlocutors about the discussed € 610 Million of macro-financial aid from the EU. The key to implementing these measures is in Kyiv.

Finally I underlined the EU's and European Parliament's particular attention to the relations with Ukraine. Kyiv is our strategic partner. An important and symbolic reminder of that attitude on our side, is that my visit was the second of the EP President this year alone and one of the first foreign destinations since I took office ".

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For further information:
Inga Rosińska, Spokeswoman
Mobile: +32 498 981 354

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Note for editors:
Please note that there will be TV news footage of the visit available for download in broadcast quality (MPG2) and web quality (MPG4) following the broadcast on Europe by Satellite on Tuesday at17.30 CET at the following address: http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/ebs/schedule.cfm?page=1&date=12/22/2009

and on the ftp server: ftp://epavvideoget:mo12ssb@ftpeps01.europarl.eu.int/epavvideo/CabinetPresident/Buzek_Ukrainia/

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