You're reading: PACE: Ukraine should not waste ‘a moment’ in conducting reforms’

Strasbourg, Oct. 7 (Interfax-Ukraine) - PACE President Mevlut Cavusoglu has called on the Ukrainian authorities not to delay the holding of reforms in the country.

He told Ukrainian journalists in Strasbourg on Friday that there was a three-year action plan in the sphere of conducting reforms.

"We welcome this package. And now it’s time to implement it. I called on the authorities to start implementing this package. We should lose no time. It’s time to act, without wasting a moment," Cavusoglu said.

In this regard, he said that the reforms being conducted in the country had two goals – to meet Ukraine’s commitments to the Council of Europe and get the association agreement with the EU.

"Reforms in any country should be conducted in the interests of the people, rather than for the EU or anyone else. You can pass a law, but implementation will not be successful. But if you believe that these reforms are good for your people, then it will be easy to implement them," he said.

Cavusoglu said that corruption was a major problem in Ukraine.

"Corruption is a serious problem in Ukraine, and for that reason the volume of foreign direct investment in the country is lower than its capacity. Sometimes I ask the Turkish businessmen why they don’t come to Ukraine. They say that they want to, but there’s corruption, corruption, and corruption. And it’s a disease of the country," he said.

He also added: "If the country succeeds in the reform process, then the Ukrainian people will start getting pleasure from it. If Ukraine succeeds in its reforms, it means that Ukraine will be more democratic, and that’s good for everybody."

Cavusoglu also said that although Ukraine is a "young democracy," it should not be an excuse for slow progress on this path.

"Democracy is a long process. We should not use this as an excuse for slow progress," he said.

"When we criticize, we also offer our assistance," he said.