Arseniy Yatsenyuk: The law enforcement and judicial reforms imply primarily changing attitude towards citizens

"Retrofitting of both the law enforcement and the judiciary requires substantial support from the Government of Ukraine and all our Western partners. This includes, first of all, changing attitude towards thecitizens of our country, ensuring their security, keeping public order, maintaining peace within the country," stressed Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Wednesday, February 10, at a joint board meeting of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and the Justice Ministry of Ukraine entitled "From new police towards new justice and citizenship security" on Wednesday, February 10.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk commended the reform undertaken by the Ministry of the Interior: "The new national police have been established. Young people who had undergone testing and training took up their duty ofprotecting public order. These young Ukrainian police officers safeguard security of the Ukrainian citizens".

He expressed gratitude to the European Union, the United States of America, Canada and the UK for the significant support for the reform of both the National Police and the National Guard.

According to Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the National Guard was actually established from scratch. To follow the reform plan it is also necessary further assistance of G7 and the European Union, Arseniy Yatsenyuk highlighted.

In 2016 it is also crucial to continue the reforms launched by the Justice Ministry: "The Ministry of Justicehas opened access to all the registries, established a mechanism of free legal aid for millions of Ukrainian citizens. Nowadays, the Ministry of Justice presents a reform, which can be called "from the Ministry of bureaucracy towards the Ministry of Justice."

The Prime Minister also reminded that the report of the European Commission proved that Ukraine hadfulfilled all requirements to be granted a visa-free regime with the EU. At that, he emphasized the need to amend a number of laws on liberalization of visa regime: "The next plenary week the Parliament should vote for extralaws having drafted by the Government of Ukraine and submitted to the President of Ukraine, so such lawsshould be considered by the Parliament as top priority".

Arseniy Yatsenyuk noted that the State Migration Service had already started issuing biometric passports and new ID citizen cards, thereby having "finally got rid of the old Soviet-style passport."

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