Germany withdrew its objection concerning the accession of Ukraine to Hague Convention 1961, according to which member countries have one system of documents authorization procedure where documents are verified by apostil. Ukraine acceded to Convention in December 2003, but Germany refused for a long duration to accept documents with apostils, referring to the high level of corruption in our country. The Ukrainian citizens had to pass consular legalization, which consisted of three stages: legalization in Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, in Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and the last one in the Consulate of Germany. Now this complicated process of documents legalization is replaced by simplified proceeding of documents legalization which Ukraine uses for the USA, Israel, Italy, France and other countries.

Recalled that Belgium together with Germany in 2003 refused to confirm the accession of Ukraine to Hague Convention, but in July 2004 Belgium withdrew its objections.