Five parties agree to establish coalition in Ukraine

Five parties in Ukraine -- People's Front, Radical Party, Samopomoshch (Self Help), Pyotr Poroshenko Bloc and Yulia Timoshenko's Batkivshchina -- have signed an agreement to establish a coalition in Ukraine's parliament.

In the final version of the draft agreement, participants in the ruling coalition commit themselves to investigating the killing of protesters on Kiev's Independence Square in February 2014, Unian news agency reorted.

They also vowed to abolish parliamentary immunity.

"We will ensure equality of all state officials before the law, restrict all kinds of immunity against criminal prosecution. We will be open and accountable to the society, and will be guided in our activity only by law, that is why we will abolish parliamentary immunity," said the preamble to the document.

"We see our main task in ensuring defence potentials of Ukraine, economic growth, protection of rights and freedoms of our citizens," it stated.

It also lists among the tasks, "protection of legal interests of Crimean Tatars, all Ukrainian citizens living on a temporarily occupied territory of Crimea and Sevastopol, parts of the Lugansk and Donetsk region, and liberation of these territories".

The document says the implementation of the association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union will be the basis of reforms in Ukraine.

"We will carry out reforms designed to achieve European quality of life for Ukrainian citizens, do away with poverty, develop a competitive economy, have a stable development of the society, favourable conditions for business, new jobs and decline in unemployment, as well as to obtain energy independence, develop the civil society, ensure freedom of speech, fight corruption and restore justice, develop education and science, culture and spirituality," the preamble states.

The first session of the new parliament is expected to be held on Nov 27.