Ukraine among leaders of European Integration Index for Eastern Partnership Countries

Ukraine has become the leader of the European Integration Index for Eastern Partnership Countries in a number of sub-categories.

Such results of the research were presented by the New Europe Center during the round table "What prevents Ukraine from becoming the Eastern Partnership leader" at the Ukrinform news agency.

"Out of six eastern partners, Ukraine is the leader in such subcategories as freedom of speech and assembly, independence of the courts, international security, political dialogue and cooperation, sectoral cooperation and trade flows and adaptation to the EU standards. Ukraine received the highest score among six partners in these subcategories," Deputy Director of the Center Kateryna Zarembo said.

According to her, such results show the greatest progress in these aspects but "this does not mean that everything is good in Ukraine in these areas."

At the same time, she stressed, Ukraine has "several serious problems" in comparison with partners, in particular, it concerns the business climate. "One of the paradoxes of this research was that despite the existence of the Association Agreement and implementation of its provisions, Ukraine has the worst business climate among the Eastern Partnership countries. Ukraine lags behind even those countries, which have not signed the association agreement and do not plan to sign it. I'm talking about Belarus, Azerbaijan and Armenia," the expert said.

Among the challenges that Ukraine faces in 2018, Zarembo called the continuation of a number of reforms. "First and foremost, these are the anti-corruption reform, justice reform, the reform of security agencies, land reform, etc.," she said.

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