The bill on reform of the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine (BES) should be developed in line with NATO and EU standards, otherwise Ukraine may lose partners' trust, Verkhovna Rada Chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk has said.

"We do not need to reinvent a wheel. We should stick to the standards that were taken and approved with our partners. Our vector is direct and clear – the European Union and NATO, therefore we should observe their standards," he said in an exclusive interview with the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency.

Ukraine should not adopt legal acts which it would have to amend later, because if it is dishonest with its partners, then it may lose their trust, Stefanchuk said.

"That is why we should at once adopt it the way we have agreed," he said.

As reported, on October 13, 2023, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Police recommended the parliament to adopt bill No. 10088 on priority steps to reform the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine and alternative bill No. 10088-1. This version of the draft law was backed by the Finance Ministry, the Economy Ministry and the Justice Ministry with commentaries.

Later, on December 29, 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved its own bill on the reboot of the BES and it was sharply criticized by Board Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre Vitaliy Shabunin and the first deputy head of the profile parliamentary committee, Yaroslav Zhelezniak, who said if the Office of the President preserves control over the BES, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will not count this structural beacon.

According to the updated EFF program, the bill on reform of the BES should be adopted by the end of June 2024.