President Victor Yushchenko on Thursday met with members of U.S. Congress. They spoke about Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration, early parliamentary elections and constitutional reforms, according to the President`s press-office.
Yushchenko described the country’s ambition to join the European Union and NATO as its “key national priority” and described Ukraine’s partnership with the United States as “strategic and increasingly important.” “Our strategic goal is to build a European Ukraine and integrate into European and global political processes,” he said, adding that his team worked hard to “make this path closer.”
The president said it was important to sign an enhanced cooperation agreement with the European Union, calling it a “point of mobilization we need to advance.” He said there were lots of factors impeding Ukraine’s progress but added they were merely political. “The nation does not perceive the East-West problem as acutely as politicians.”
Yushchenko said the country’s recent political crisis had been caused by 2004 constitutional reforms and insisted that it was necessary to repeal legislative immunity and introduce imperative mandate to prevent lawmakers from switching factions.
