EPP, EaP leaders call for reform, fight against corruption – declaration

10:56, 25.11.2017 1 min read

Accelerating the pace of reforms and strengthening the fight against corruption are necessary for anti-crisis measures and providing EU assistance, while their absence, on the contrary, increases the vulnerability of countries to hybrid threats, according to a declaration by the leaders of the EPP and Eastern Partnership countries, which was agreed at a meeting in Brussels on Thursday, November 23.

"We stress that if domestic political elites do not accelerate the pace of reforms and implement strong anti-corruption measures, no amount of Western assistance will suffice to pull any country out of crisis; the EU's macro-financial and technical assistance should be delivered on terms of strict conditionality," reads the declaration.

"Moreover, shortcomings in domestic reform, systemic corruption and weak state institutions have made Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova less resilient to hybrid challenges and Russian propaganda," the leaders of the EPP and the EaP countries said.