Vladimir Litvin and Jan Fischer

Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Vladimir Litvin, second from the right, and Vice President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Jan Fischer, left, during meeting in Kiev, on Thursday, February 24, 2011. Vladimir Litvin highly appreciated the level of cooperation between Ukraine and the EBRD, stating that the partnership was fruitful. Vladimir Litvin stressed, "The Parliament takes a careful notice of the Bank´s recommendations, and tries to follow them in the law-making." The Head of the Parliament hopes that formation and implementation of a new middle-term EBRD Strategy in Ukraine will make cooperation more effective. In his turn, EBRD Vice-President assured that the Bank was among the most effective institutional investors in Ukraine willing to continue cooperation. He informed that cooperation was multi-faceted, including such areas as energy and energy-saving, transport infrastructure, development of small and medium-sized companies and projects on the local self-government. Photo by Anastasia Sirotkina / POOL / UNIAN