The Ukrainian authorities are doing everything to prepare Ukraine for accession to the EU within three years, Verkhovna Rada Chairman Oleksandr Turchynov has said.
‘The Association Agreement with the EU is our road map, which the authorities are implementing to ensure Ukraine’s accession to the EU within three years,’ he said in Kyiv on Oct. 8 at a meeting with a delegation of the special PACE committee on monitoring early parliamentary elections in Ukraine.
Turchynov said he was confident that ‘Ukraine will be an independent, democratic and European country.’ He said that Ukrainian legislation was being brought into line with European legislation ‘at a very rapid pace.’ Turchynov said that Ukraine and its people were ready to meet all challenges that face the country on the road to Europe.
According to a statement posted on the Web site of the Verkhovna Rada, the sides discussed the holding of early parliamentary elections in Ukraine. Turchynov said that despite the extremely difficult situation in the east of Ukraine and the occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, parliamentary elections would be held in a democratic and transparent manner that will ensure the election of a legitimate parliament. He recalled that the last presidential elections ‘were fair, free and, according to international observers, exemplary.’
During the meeting the sides discussed the presence of the PACE monitoring mission and a group of observers in the parliamentary elections.
‘I am grateful to PACE representatives for supporting our position and for sending such an important delegation and so many election observers,’ Turchynov said.
