Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk has addressed to MPs of Ukraine to pass 70 priority bills submitted by the Government that are necessary, in particular, to stabilize the financial and economic situation, increase social standards and liberalize the visa regime with the EU. This was started by the PM during An Hour of Questions to the Government at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Friday, September 4.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk stressed that the Government of Ukraine submitted to the Parliament 70 priority bills to stabilize the financial and economic situation, which should be voted in the Parliament: "These bills provide for the continuation of systemic reforms in the field of economic, public finance, public procurement and privatization".

He recalled that after "a very long and incredibly difficult" talks with creditors, who own significant debt package of Ukraine, the Government was able to write off USD 4 billion and and to extend the deadline for payment of the loans for four years: "We have managed not to increase the cost of financing of the state debt".

"This is one of the elements to ensure Ukraine's sustainable economic growth. We were not able to stabilize the economy due to incredible debts that had been accumulated by previous Governments, and basically it was the regime of Viktor Yanukovych, who took $ 40 billion. The total interest of payments that Ukraine is obliged to pay is equal to the amount that we spent to finance system of national security and defense during a year.

Another step, which the Government offers is to conduct a large-scale tax reform. Arseniy Yatsenyuk reminded that it has been held the first stage of tax reform, "we’ve reduced the number of taxes and a new system of payment of the single social contribution as an experiment has been introduced, transfer pricing has been launched, tax on the most oligarchic forms of business have been increased, standards of accounting and taxation have been approximated and the State Fiscal Service conducts the reforms and creates favorable conditions for entrepreneurs."

In addition, an the first stage of the tax reform it was introduced a system of administration of VAT: "Only in August we managed to get to the state budget UAH 2.5 billion of additional funds that corrupt officials had not able to wash out of the State Budget system of Ukraine".

"At the second phase of our tax reform, the goal of which is to create jobs, the Government should do everything to ensure that there was no corruption. And it is the task to the Parliament too on the radical changes in the judicial system and all the judges, the fight against corruption in the law-enforcement agencies. And the Government should ensure the equality of all taxpayers, fairness and consistency of tax system," the Head of Government stressed.

The third step according to Arseniy Yatsenyuk is to find new markets for Ukrainian products: "We’ve predicted that the Russian Federation from January 1, 2016 will close its markets for us and established the Office of the Trade Representative and signed agreements on FTA with EU member-states and Canada. Now we continue negotiations on the signing of the Agreement on free trade area with Israel and other countries."

The fourth step according to the Prime Minister is the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers on improving the social standards - salaries, pensions and other social benefits.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk appealed to the Parliament to vote for amendments to the Law of Ukraine on the State Budget during the next plenary week on increasing salaries, pensions and other social benefits, "these are the Law on writing off and restructuring of debts and dozens of bills that directly affect the economic life of the country".

Among these bills he mentioned, in particular, the draft law on public procurement: "unfortunately, not all members of Parliament supported this decision. Every day of delay on the adoption of this law means that shadow schemes and corruption will be in state procurements and state procurements will continue to be blocked by the Antimonopoly Committee".

Arseniy Yatsenyuk also stressed on the need to adopt the laws necessary for visa liberalization with the EU. He reminded that a mission of the European Union on visa-free regime is in Ukraine: "Despite technical and financial difficulties, the main issues on visa-free regime we perform and give clear answers. Now the mission of the European Union is very active, and I look forward to the interim report of the mission on visa-free regime".

"Once again I appeal what we need to show political will. I appeal to political forces that will participate in local elections. Any additional position of a village head or two or three dozen members of the district or rural councils isn't worth to risk the fate of the country. Each political force has the right to represent their ideology. Everyone has the right to move to the opposition to the authorities. But don’t be in opposition to Ukraine."