22/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - EU calls for reforms to continue. On Monday 22 February, the European Union called for Ukraine to continue its reforms, despite the fact that last week, the Prime Minister just managed to escape a vote of no confidence at the Parliament and the Batkivshchyna Party (Fatherland) of Yulia Timoshenko withdrew from the coalition in power. Maja Kocijancic, the spokesperson for the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, stated “We believe that at this critical moment it is essential that the political leaders in the country maintain the emphasis on the work on reform”. She added that further effort for carrying out these reforms was “necessary” and that it was crucial that the work continued. The Spokesperson particularly emphasised the reforms relating to the association agenda, the fight against corruption, the rule of law and democratic responsibility. According to Kocijancic, the current crisis can be seen as an “opportunity for increasing the quality of work” and convincing citizens that the leaders “are capable of carrying out systemic transformation”. She also explained that the EU was closely following the situation and would continue to support the efforts to carry out reform. (CG)