The European Commission (EC) welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s determination to fight the deeply rooted influence of vested oligarchic interests on the country’s life and expects the next steps in this direction.
The European Commission said this to the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Friday commenting the adoption of the law on de-oligarchisation by the Verkhovna Rada.
“We welcome President Zelensky’s determination to address the deeply rooted influence of vested oligarchic interests in the political and economic life of Ukraine,” the European Commission said.
The diplomats in Brussels underscored the adoption of the bill “On the prevention of threats to national security associated with the excessive influence of persons with significant economic or political heft in public life (oligarchs)” at the second reading in the Verkhovna Rada on 23 September. “This is a step forward. We expect the law to be implemented fully and with determination, in a legally sound manner. We believe that in addition to the implementation of the adopted law, more steps are needed, in particular to close Ukraine’s institutional gaps, to achieve the desired de-oligarchizing effect,” they noted.
At the same time the European Commission stressed that Ukraine “invested a lot of efforts into closing the space for corrupt practicing, by i.a. cleaning the banking sector and ensuring transparency of the public procurement.” “We encourage to continue these efforts in others sectors prone to corrupt practices,” the diplomats said.
They are convinced that “strengthening of planned and existing institutions (such as the rule of law authorities, including the court system; the Anti-Monopoly Committee; the public broadcaster; an independent press regulator among others) should stand at the heart of this fight to consolidate the rule of law, shore up the trust of Ukrainian citizens in public institutions and, not least, to unleash Ukraine’s economic potential for the benefit of all people of Ukraine.”
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved an agreement with the Government of the Republic of Peru to abolish visa requirements for short stays.
The relevant decision was made at the Wednesday government meeting.
This agreement was signed in Kyiv on July 15, 2021. The agreement provides for the abolition of visa requirements for the entry and stay of citizens of countries on the territory of the state of the other party for up to 90 days within 180 days.
For citizens of Ukraine, the possibility of visa-free tourist trips to Peru for up to 183 days will remain, which Peru introduced by a unilateral decision in 2003.
The Ukrainian Climate Fund, which is currently being developed by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resource, may be launched early 2023, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine Roman Abramovsky has told the Green Deal portal.
“In any case, this fund can be launched at the beginning of 2023, because any budget documents involving changes in the receipts and expenditure are submitted before July 1,” the minister said.
At the same time, he said that there is still a lot of work to be done on the design and modeling of the Ukrainian Climate Fund, as well as in the adoption of a bill that will approve this fund.
“Nevertheless, I believe that this is objectively possible. One of the main tasks at this stage is to enlist the support of international financial institutions that can be investors within the fund and multiply the effect of the income from environmental taxes. There is no other way!” he said.
According to him, the ministry is negotiating with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank.
The minister also said that at the time of launch, the fund will have about UAH 8 billion of its own funds received from the proceeds from the tax on CO2 emissions and other environmental taxes.
Sugar production in Ukraine as of September 20 amounted to 74,900 tonnes. According to a report on the website of the Ukrtsukor National Association of Sugar Producers, in total, 629,800 tonnes of sugar beet had been processed.
According to the data on the website of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, as of September 16, Ukrainian agrarians harvested 506,300 tonnes of sugar beet (4.7% of the forecast) with a yield of 47.72 tonnes per ha.
As reported, the current season of sugar beet refining started in the country on August 21.
The Uzbek state airline Uzbekistan Airways has resumed flights on the Tashkent-Kyiv-Tashkent route after a six-year break, according to Boryspil International Airport’s Facebook page.
“Yesterday, the Uzbek state airline Uzbekistan Airways returned to Boryspil International Airport on the Tashkent-Kyiv-Tashkent route,” the report says.
Flights will be operated once a week on Sundays.
In addition to Uzbekistan Airways, flights to Tashkent from Kyiv are operated by Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) and SkyUp.
The share of illegal tobacco products on the Ukrainian market in February-May 2021 increased by 3.1 p.p., to 15.9%, this is the maximum indicator, mainly due to the growth of illegal sales of products labeled as Duty Free, as well as those intended for export.
Such data were published by the Kantar Ukraine research institute through a survey of 3,300 adult smokers throughout the country, as well as by studying the origin of tobacco products in circulation.
According to the study, the total volume of illegally sold cigarettes since the beginning of the year, including May, amounted to 7.21 billion pieces, which led to a shortfall in the state budget of UAH 13.2 billion in tax deductions.
Kantar clarified that in May 2021 the share of counterfeit products on the Ukrainian cigarette market increased by 1.8 p.p. compared to February – up to 4.2%, the share of products labeled for Duty Free and export illegally sold in the country – by 1.3 p.p., to 8.2%, while the share of smuggled cigarettes decreased by 0.1 p.p., to 1.6%.
According to the results of the study, the average annual level of illegal sales of tobacco products in January-May 2021 increased by 2.1 times compared with the indicator for the entire 2020 – up to 14.4%. At the same time, since the beginning of this year, the share of counterfeits in the domestic cigarette market has grown by 3.1 p.p. compared to the data for 2020 – up to 5.1%, the share of products marked for Duty Free and export illegally sold in Ukraine – by 4.8 p.p., to 7.6%, while the share of smuggled cigarettes decreased by 0.5 p.p., to 1.7%.
“In addition to another growth in the volume of illegal tobacco products, another feature of 2021 is that there is a change in the distribution channels for illegal products. In 2021, three times more illegal tobacco products were sold through kiosks and stores than in 2020,” analyst from Kantar Ukraine Tetiana Sverdlyk said.
The institute clarified that 62% of tobacco products illegally sold as export or Duty Free products are marked as produced by the Vynnyky Tobacco Factory (Vynnyky, Lviv region) and are marked as not intended for sale in Ukraine. The share of unidentified manufacturers is 20%, United Tobacco LLC (Zhovti Vody, Dnipropetrovsk region) – 15%.
The most common brands of this group of illegal products are the Compliment brand marked as Duty Free – with a share of 47%, as well as those intended for export, but sold in Ukraine, namely Marshall (13%), Marvel (10%), Urta (8%) and Jin Ling (6%). The total share of these brands in this product group was 84%.
Kantar noted that 49% of smuggled cigarettes are products of Grodno Tobacco Factory (Belarus), 15% are from Moldovan factories. The most common smuggled brands are Credo, Fest, Queen, Dove, NZ, Ritm.
It is specified that 63% of illegal products are distributed in seven regions of Ukraine, most of all – in Odesa and Kharkiv (13% each), Donetsk (10%), Dnipropetrovsk (8%), Zaporizhia, Khmelnytsky and Lviv (6% each) regions.
