KYIV, Ukraine, June 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

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.

SOURCE Worldwide News Ukraine