Concerns have eased in the European Union over Ukraine's plans to criminalize libel, as the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, cancelled its decision to pass the bill at first reading.

"The news from Kyiv about the decision of the Ukrainian parliament to end work on the bill amending the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code for the criminalization libel put an end to our concerns about this bill," Peter Stano, the spokesman of EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule, said in an interview with an Interfax-Ukraine reporter on October 2.

At the same time, Stano noted that the European Commission is thoroughly monitoring the issue and keeps in touch with CoE and OSCE experts, as well as Ukrainian journalists.

"We stated earlier that the prospect of amending the legislation raised our concern about a possible negative influence on freedom of the media, especially during the election campaign," he said.

As reported, the Verkhovna Rada cancelled the bill introducing amendments to the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine concerning the tightening of responsibility for infringements of honor, dignity and business reputation on October 2, 2012.

On September 18, 2012 the parliament passed at first reading the bill that proposed adding Article 145-1 on libel to the Criminal Code.

A national protest against the adoption of the bill started in Ukraine on September 25, 2012. A number of well-known media joined the protest.

On the same day, the author of the libel bill, Regions Party parliamentary faction MP Vitaliy Zhuravsky, registered at the parliament a draft instruction on the cancellation of a decision by the Verkhovna Rada to pass at first reading the bill on amendments to the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine on toughening punishments for the infringement of the honor, dignity and business reputation of a person.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych criticized the bill on the criminalization of libel.