International European University held an international scientific conference: ‘25th Anniversary of the Constitution of Ukraine: National Tradition and European Standards of Constitutionalism’, involving honored guests, public officials, students, Ph.D. students, young scientists, lawyers and political strategists.
Due to the global epidemiological situation, International European University developed the plan of actions and took care of all participants. At the entrance of the university, our partners, medical professionals from New diagnostics laboratory, carried out PCR testing and provided participants with face masks.
The conference was opened by Alla Navolokina, a co-founder and vice-rector for educational and scientific work and international relations of International European University. Mrs. Alla stressed the importance of the event, as the Constitution of Ukraine secured the right to education. According to the Constitution, the social and cultural right to education provides everyone in Ukraine with the possibility to acquire knowledge, abilities, skills and professional training based on mutual cooperation of various entities of the education sector.
International European University respects the Constitution Day of Ukraine and complies with the Fundamental Law of Ukraine to secure the rights and freedoms of each citizen in this state.
Honored guests of the conference included:
Anatolii Tolstoukhov
Ukrainian public official, policymaker and scientist, first rank civil servant, Ph.D., academician at the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine. Chair of the Council for International European University Development.
Franz-Volodymyr von Habsburg-Lothringen
Descendant of Emperor Franz Joseph. President of International European University.
Mokhammad Faradzhallakh
Editor-in-chief of “Ukraine in Arabic”
Kateryna Odarchenko
Head of National Platform political party, President of the Institute for Democracy and Development “PolitA”, partner of SIC Group Ukraine.
Tamara Marusyk
Vice-rector for research, education and instruction of Chernivtsi National University.
Sam Noshadha
Vice-rector for international relations, responsible for prevention and detection of corruption, of Academy of Labour, Social Relations and Tourism. Judge of the International Commercial Arbitration Court. He is recognized by the best lawyers in Ukrainian commercial law.
Bohdan Kushnir
Attorney, director of Argument Law Firm, founder of International Human Rights Association “National Lawyer”.
Sadaqat Hussain
Representative of foreign students at International European University.
Natalia Kozaeva
Head of the Notary Chamber of Ukraine in Kyiv, member of the Council of National Pedagogical Dragomanov University.
Volodymyr Omelchenko
Director of energy and infrastructure programs at Razumkov Centre.
The conference continued in the format of panel sessions where participants, students and invited guests discussed relevant issues of the development of Ukrainian legal science and practice.
Quite symbolic is the fact that this year, Ukrainians celebrate two significant dates: 25th Anniversary of the Constitution of Ukraine and 30th Anniversary of the declaration of Ukrainian independence.
It is symbolic for International European University because, on the eve of these dates, one has founded the university and started its operations as an institution developing each citizen of the new world order.
To sum up, the conference showed the significance of the dialogue, scientific comprehension and educational issues for both the university community and public officials and society.
Thus, in regard to this great Ukrainian holiday, we wish us to live in the constitutional state that respects the rights and fulfils its obligations, as well as features mutual respect and equality. The state respected and appreciated on the global stage. In the state called Ukraine!
Live broadcasting of the conference is available here.
ALLA NAVOLOKINA, CONFERENCE, CONSTITUTION, INTERNATIONAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY
Only 10% of Ukrainians, who define themselves as believers, regularly visit religious houses. These are the data of a sociological study conducted by the Active Group social research company and the Expert Club analytical center and presented during a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.
“Compared to the indicators of 2020, the number of people, who consider themselves rather non-believers, has grown in Ukraine. This figure has increased from 8 to 13% over the year. This may be due to the reverse transition from religious practices to secular ones due to the end of the critical phase of the pandemic in our country,” the co-founder of the Expert Club, political scientist Daniel Bogatyrev said.
“Among people who consider themselves believers, 86% identify themselves as Orthodox Christians, 9% are Catholics, 1.2% are Islam believers, 0.7% Protestantism believers, 0.3% pagans, and 0.2% Judaism believers,” Head of Active Group Oleksandr Pozniy said, summing up the results of the study.
In addition, Pozniy noted the correlation between adherence to Orthodox Christianity and the age of citizens. The study revealed an increase in the number of Orthodox believers among middle-aged and elder people.
According to Editor-in-Chief of the Ukraine in Arabic news portal Mohammad Farajallah, faith should meet the traditions and life of the nation in which it prevails.
“Ukraine has always been a multinational and poly-confessional state, but Orthodoxy has been and will remain the main religion in Ukraine. As for Islam here, the percentage of Muslims has remained generally unchanged thanks to the indigenous people, primarily the Crimean Tatars… Over the 30 years of independence, the number of immigrants professing Islam in Ukraine has not exceeded 50,000-100,000 people, which is not a significant figure,” Farajallah said.
Many people select a particular confession based primarily on political considerations, political scientist and Head of the UP Foundation, Kost Bondarenko, said.
“If one looks at the realities, political engagement does not make it possible to talk about the churching of parishioners of certain confessions. It is one thing to declare the faith, but another thing is churching. This can be observed every year, when at the end of July religious processions are organized in honor of the feast of the Baptism of Rus. At the same time, the processions of the two confessions (UOC and OCU) are different. The number of parishioners of the UOC is usually 200,000-300,000 people who walk with crosses and banners, showing their adherence to Orthodoxy. At the same time, during the processions of the OCU, parishioners mostly go with national flags and portraits of the heroes of the Ukrainian pantheon. This really indicates to two approaches to religiosity in these confessions,” Bondarenko said.
Watch the full video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HazeCIxjfVo
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The COVID-19 certificate can be implemented from July 1 and will be valid for up to 180 days, Director General of the Center for Public Health Roman Rodyna has said.
“Now we are working out a resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers, which will determine the conditions for issuing a COVID-19 certificate. We hope that it will available from July 1,” he said on the YouTube channel on Friday.
Rodyna named three reasons for issuing such a certificate. In particular, it will be issued if a person has received a full course of vaccination. In this case, the document will be valid for 180 days.
In addition, a negative PCR test will be the basis for issuing a certificate. In this case, its validity period is 72 hours from the moment of taking the sample.
The certificate will also be issued if a person has been ill with COVID-19 and the relevant confirmed laboratory data have been entered into eHealth. In this case, the certificate will be valid for 180 days from the date of receipt of laboratory confirmation of the disease.
Rodyna said, the question of whether these certificates will allow entry to other countries will be decided by bilateral agreements between the countries.
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Dmytro Razumkov denies rumors about possible early presidential elections in Ukraine. “I also see this [information about early presidential elections] in the media, telegram channels. I don’t quite understand who is doing this and why […] You know, any information campaign has to be for something. I am sure that the president will not leave his position, because a lot has not yet been done, only half of the term has passed. He has enough time to work further. Why he should leave his post is a mystery to me. There is no logic in it,” Razumkov said at a press conference on Friday in Kyiv.
He said that it makes no sense for President Volodymyr Zelensky to leave politics today.
“The President will not leave his post today and will not start doing any other things,” the speaker said.
The total public debt of Ukraine in May 2021 grew by 0.21% in U.S. dollars, to $91.52 billion and decreased by 0.69% in hryvnias, to UAH 2.516 trillion, according to data on the website of the Ministry of Finance, published in Friday.
According to the Ministry of Finance, direct public debt in May this year in U.S. dollars increased 0.16%, to $81.5 billion, in hryvnias it decreased 0.75%, to UAH 2.241 trillion.
External direct debt in the past month in U.S. dollars grew by 0.16%, to $45.19 billion, and in hryvnias it decreased 0.74%, to UAH 1.242 trillion.
The state-guaranteed debt in May in U.S. dollars increased by 0.7%, to $10.02 billion, in hryvnias it decreased 0.26%, to UAH 275.54 billion, according to the ministry’s data.
According to them, since the beginning of 2021, the total national debt of Ukraine has grown by 1.4% in U.S. dollars and by 17.51% in hryvnias.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the share of liabilities in U.S. dollars of the overall government debt in May increased to 36.21%, in hryvnias it also grew to 36.21%, in SDR it rose to 13.59%, but the share of liabilities in euros decreased to 13. 39%, and in yen to 0.59%.
The official U.S. dollar rate, at which the Ministry of Finance calculates the debt, strengthened to UAH 27.50/$1 in May compared to UAH 27.75/$1 in April, and UAH 27.88/$1 in March.
The volume of Ukrainian e-commerce exports in 2020 increased by 30% and amounted to $450 million, while the majority of Ukrainian e-commerce platforms are designed exclusively for the local consumer, according to a study of the Ukrainian e-commerce market conducted by Soul Partners, Baker Tilly Ukraine and Aequo at supported by USAID.
“Prospects for the development of the export potential of e-commerce remain at a relatively low level. According to the results of the survey, over 85% of respondents declared the absence of export operations using e-commerce, while the majority of the interviewed entrepreneurs are extremely interested in the development of e-exports,” Partner and Advisory Practice Leader at Baker Tilly Ukraine Andriy Kaliushenko said.
According to the study, Ukrainian electronic exports are mainly represented through international platforms such as Amazon, Ebay and Etsy, while most Ukrainian platforms do not provide the possibility of export operations or international delivery.
The largest importer of Ukrainian goods at the end of the year was the United States, which share was 33% of the total Ukrainian e-commerce export. In second place is Russia (16%), followed by the U.K., Germany and Canada (4-7%). At the same time, a third of export operations in Ukraine falls on Kyiv, 10% on Kharkiv, and 8% on Dnipro. Products from the categories of food products, clothing and medicines dominated in the structure of export sales.
By the end of 2020, Ukrposhta became the largest logistics operator of international parcels (65% of the total number of parcels).
According to the authors of the study, the main obstacle to the development of e-commerce export is the non-recognition of Ukrainian certificates of conformity in the EU.
“The implementation of the Association Agreement by Ukraine and the mutual recognition of electronic signatures with the EU countries would have contributed to the integration of markets,” Partner and of Head of M&A at Aequo Hanna Babych said.
In addition, the entry of global e-commerce players into the Ukrainian market and the expansion of PayPal’s functionality could increase the potential of e-export, according to the study.
