Brussels, 15/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - A few minutes after the appointment of the new government in Ukraine on Thursday 14 April, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn affirmed that they would support the new government “to ensure that key political and economic institutions function efficiently and transparently, and that the rule of law is strengthened”.
The new Ukrainian government has been formed by Volodymyr Groysman, who is close to President Petro Poroshenko and who was previously speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament. Groysman replaces Arseniy Yatsenyuk as prime minister, following Yatsenyuk's resignation.
“We look forward to working with him [Groysman] to build a stronger Ukraine” on the basis if “fundamental reform and accountable governance”, Mogherini and Hahn state in a joint press release. They say that the formation of the new government is “a crucial development at a time when new momentum in the country is badly needed”. Stating that “substantial efforts to implement reforms have been made in Ukraine since 2014”, Mogherini and Hahn called for “the momentum offered with the appointment of the new prime minister and government” to be “seized now, first and foremost, to renew trust” from the Ukrainian citizens. Mogherini and Hahn also hoped that this appointment would “provide new momentum to the implementation of the Minsk agreements”.
Germany and France call for swift and concrete results. France's President François Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also stated that it was “necessary for the new dynamic created by the change of government to be translated into swift and concrete results”, according to a press release from the French Presidency that was published after a phonecall between Poroshenko, Merkel and Hollande. Hollande and Merkel encouraged the Ukrainian authorities to speed up the reforms, “especially in the area of modernising the country, fighting corruption and reforming the judiciary”. They also underlined the need for “swift progress in implementing the Minsk agreements” with particular efforts for security “and therefore the respect of the ceasefire”, the release of prisoners, humanitarian issues and the conditions for a political settlement of the crisis. The resolution of this crisis “will come initially through organising the elections in the east of Ukraine”, they reiterated. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)