Ukrainian Finance Minister Oksana Markarova has discussed the course of reforms and the progress in the implementation of the fourth macrofinancial assistance (MFA) program of the European Union (EU) with European Commission Vice-President for the Euro and Social Dialogue Valdis Dombrovskis.

The press service of the Finance Ministry reported on Thursday that during the meeting, Markarova said that the Ukrainian government has fulfilled more than half of the commitments required for the provision of Ukraine with the second tranche of EUR 500 million, and another five out of 12 conditions stipulated by the program are at different stages of implementation.

In particular, the minister said that in the coming days, the results of the selection of judges of the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine will be announced, and on February 28, the Verkhovna Rada ratified the a multilateral convention to implement tax treaty related measures to prevent base erosion and profit shifting (Multilateral Instrument or MLI), and also adopted at first reading a bill on the introduction of the institution of an authorized economic operator.

"Now our task is to do everything possible so that in the coming weeks the Verkhovna Rada will adopt a bill on preventing and combating money laundering, which is one of the key obligations of Ukraine to the EU, and introduce the institution of an authorized economic operator," the minister said.

In addition, she focused on a number of measures that the government is taking to reduce the proportion of non-performing loans (NPLs) in the banks of the public sector, and said that today the Finance Ministry published a first report on the status of working with NPL and will report about it every quarter.