During their meeting in Stockholm on Tuesday, Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Groysman and Prime Minister of Sweden Stefan Lofven discussed the course of the domestic reforms in Ukraine and the Ukrainian-Swedish cooperation.
In particular, Groysman informed about the work of the Verkhovna Rada on legislative support to universal reforms. He pointed to the adoption of a number of laws aimed at intensification of fight against corruption, on implementation of the EU Visa Liberalization Action Plan for Ukraine, and introduction of "anti-discrimination" supplement to the Labor Code of Ukraine. The Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada also informed about the course of the constitutional reform on decentralization and reformation of the judicial system.
The Parties also discussed the ways to settle the conflict in the east of Ukraine and pointed out the necessity for unconditional observance of the Minsk agreements by all the parties. The Parties also supported the need for prolongation of sanctions against the Russian Federation in case the latter would decide to ignore the Minsk process. Groysman pointed to the importance of further raising technical defense capacity of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The Parties also discussed the issues of European integration of Ukraine, in particular, the necessity for additional assistance in introduction of the free trade area with the EU member countries. Groysman also noted that introduction of visa-free regime with Ukraine would be "a very important signal" for the Ukrainian society.
The Parties also discussed the ratification of the Istanbul convention, which was signed on November 7, 2011, by Ukraine.