EU notes Ukraine’s challenges

BRUSSELS – The European Commission has approved its 2014 European Neighborhood reports, highlighting progress and shortcomings made last year in the countries to the east and south of the European Union – several of them on Russia’s fringes. The report, issued on March 25, includes assessments of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The European Commission says reforms in Ukraine were carried out in “a very difficult political, economic, social and military/security context of armed conflicts.” The paper notes that civil society in the country has been developing quickly and that the decentralization process has been launched. It also points out that the human rights situation both in the annexed Crimea and in eastern Ukraine has “worsened drastically.” Brussels suggests the implementation of a comprehensive anti-corruption package in Ukraine, harmonization of all electoral legislation, comprehensive reform of the public administration, and ensuring that the lustration processes in the executive and the judiciary are in line with relevant international standards. (Rikard Jozwiak of RFE/RL)