OREANDA-NEWS. October 23, 2015.  Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk met with Prime Minister of Luxembourg Xavier Bettel.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk has noted the importance of the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the European Union: "During your Presidency, an agenda of EU relations with Ukraine will be identified."

He has stressed that the position of Luxembourg as a 2013/14 non-permanent member of the UN Security Council "deserves the highest respect": "You supported and keep supporting the Ukrainian territorial integrity, our security and our sovereignty."

"We expect that by the end of the year all member states of the European Union will ratify the Association Agreement with Ukraine", the Head of Government of Ukraine has pointed out, expressing hope that the referendum to be held in the Netherlands won’t be an impediment in the Ukraine’s path towards the EU.

"It is very important for the Ukrainian citizens to obtain the right to visa-free travel to the EU member states. The technical work being done by the Government of Ukraine with the European Commission allows to say that the monitoring mission has all chances to arrive at a positive conclusion as to the Ukraine’s progress towards visa-free travel. And this decision will be based solely on technical inspection of conformity of Ukraine all the criteria for visa-free regime, and not on any political motivations," Arseniy Yatsenyuk underlined.

The Prime Minister of Ukraine also reminded that the agreement on free trade area between Ukraine and the European Union shall come into force on January 1, 2016: "Any third country should have no right to influence the validity of this agreement. In the first place, I mean the Russian Federation."

"Any democracy is strong only when the power of the rights and freedoms of man and a citizen is reinforced by economic stability in the country," he stressed.

The Prime Minister of Ukraine noted the importance of bilateral dialogue between Ukraine and Luxembourg, including economic one. He said that during his meeting with Xavier Bettel it was discussed the need to complete negotiations and sign a treaty for the avoidance of double taxation between Ukraine and Luxembourg.

The meeting also discussed the process of reforms in Ukraine. "Our reforms are intended to improve the lives of citizens in the future. And no matter how difficult, but we must constantly move forward," said Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

The Luxembourg Prime Minister has highly assessed the reforms being implemented by the Government of Ukraine: "It might not contribute to the personal popularity of the Prime Minister of the country, but it will surely contribute to the popularity of the country as a whole."