Yanukovych: New draft law on election to be submitted to Venice Commission

Ukraine will forward...

Ukraine will forward the new draft law on elections to the Venice Commission, President Viktor Yanukovych said at a meeting with Director, Secretary of the European Commission for Democracy through Law Gianni Buquicchio, according to the Press office of President Viktor Yanukovych.

"Last year we adopted the Budget Code, Tax Code, and as I had promised, started working on the election law. To prepare it promptly, in advance, a large number of NGOs, political parties and international consultants are involved in this work," Viktor Yanukovych said.

"A commission headed by Justice Minister Oleksandr Lavrynovych worked out a draft electoral law and we are ready to forward it to the Venice Commission," he said.

Viktor Yanukovych thanked Gianni Buquicchio for accepting the invitation to visit Ukraine and to discuss cooperation between Ukraine and the Venice Commission.

During the meeting Viktor Yanukovych has informed his interlocutor on the situation in Ukraine, particularly on the initiated reforms.

"Ukraine has started reforming its economy in almost all directions. 21 areas will be covered by reforms this year – in 7 areas reforms started last year, this year we will add 14 more," he said.

He stressed that political stability in the country has brought economic results. "Thanks to it we had GDP growth of 4,2% last year,” Viktor Yanukovych said.

"Last year we started with the budget deficit of 14%. 2010 ended with a deficit of about 5%. At the same time we managed to curb inflation with it being about 9% last year,” he said.

According to President Yanukovych, during the first four months of this year the rate of GDP growth was 5.2% and inflation does not exceed that of the last year.

"We laid down the budget deficit of 3,5% for this year. And we actually see that it will be lower this year," Viktor Yanukovych said.

Among the participants of the meeting were Presidential Adviser, member of the Venice Commission Maryna Stavniychuk, Presidential Adviser Andrii Goncharuk, Venice Commission Secretary Thomas Markert, Secretary General of the Council of Europe Representative in Ukraine, Vladimir Ristovski.