Brussels, 20/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 19 November, the EU neighbourhood policy commissioner, Johannes Hahn, announced that the EU was prepared to provide Ukraine with €97 million to finance the training of individuals involved in administrative decentralisation.
'The EU is supporting well-organised and well-targeted decentralisation”, Hahn told a press conference in Ukraine. “Such measures demand also necessary qualification of people or staff of administration. For that, the EU is ready to provide €97 million in order to finance or co-finance this necessary qualification”, said Hahn.
In a series of conferences in Ukraine, Hahn explained that the only way to unlock Ukraine's potential was through reform - reform to create confidence in rule of law; reform to create a business climate in which enterprise can flourish; reform to put in place a public administration that really works, and also reform in the East to establish a business climate in which companies can prosper. The commissioner said much had been done in a short period of time, but a lot more remained to be done. Success, he said, was possible, adding: “There are two issues that will determine whether today's Ukraine can make a breakthrough. Tackling corruption and judicial reform. These are 'make or break' issues without which nothing else can succeed.” He called for the “fostering of a new political culture where corruption cannot flourish”. Hahn said legislation has no value if it is not confirmed by courts and no regulations can compensate for corrupt practices among officials. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)