Almotamar.net - Yemeni Deputy Premier , the Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Abdulkarim Ismael al-Arhabi said the national agenda for reforms is purely Yemeni and not imposed by anyone because the country needs reforms. Minister al-Arhabi said during the past two years Yemen has achieved many of reforms especially in the area of judicial authority that was separated from both the executive and legislative powers and chairman of the Supreme Court became chairman of the Judiciary Higher Council.

At he joint press conference after signing on an agreement between Yemen and the European Commission on support of the electoral process in Yemen the Minister considered his country's accession to Transparency Strategy in Extractive Industries as an indicator to its strongly direction towards the good governance. According to that strategy there would be a third party to be sure of production and quantities and selling price and to be sure of putting its returns at the treasury of the state and the central bank would publish figures of the amounts of money entering the treasury. He has also expressed his hope in finding a real partnership between the government and the civil society organisations.
The Minister highly evaluated the European Union support for Yemen in the past two years and its raising the support this year to euro 51 million after it was 27 million. Regarding political reforms al-Arhabi said Yemen travelled log distance in the area of democracy and there are recommendations for the development of the elections law which is a golden opportunity that must be seized for development of democracy.
On his part the representative of the European Commission said they encourage Yemen government in reforming the elections law for the sake of realizing better representation of the woman and the neutral use of the state revenues and increase in electoral participation. The European Commission official called on all political parties concerned to participate in the success of the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Yemen and the European Commission have on Tuesday signed an agreement on the of Programme of Electoral Support an development of parliament capacities in implementation of recommendations of the observation team of the European Union in the presidential elections of 2006. The recommendations stressed on revising the legal framework of elections, independence of the state institutions and revenues and the necessity of increasing proportion of the woman participation.