The 19th Extraordinary Congress of Judges of Ukraine elected all eight members of the High Council of Justice (HCJ) according to its quota in Kyiv on Thursday, the Council of Judges of Ukraine has said.
“The delegates of the 19th Extraordinary Congress of Judges of Ukraine elected all eight members of the High Council of Justice according to the quota from the judiciary,” it said on the website.
Judge of the Civil Cassation Court under the Supreme Court Serhiy Burlakov, who was elected during the second round of secret ballot, became the eighth member of the Supreme Court, the Council of Judges said.
“Thus, the 19th Extraordinary Congress of Judges of Ukraine elected all eight members of the High Council of Justice, which will allow the resumption of the work of the body of judicial self-government, unblock a number of processes in the judiciary related to the work of the courts and personnel issues, as well as continue the implementation of tasks related to judicial reform,” it said.
Thus, according to the quota of the judicial community, Judge of the Kharkiv Court of Appeal Alla Kotelevets, Judge of the Civil Cassation Court under the Supreme Court Hryhoriy Usyk, Judge of the Lviv District Administrative Court Oleksandr Sasevych, Judge of the Economic Court of Donetsk Region Yulia Bokova, Judge of the Northern Economic Court of Appeal Olha Popikova, Judge of the Mykolaiv Court of Appeal Tetiana Bondarenko, Judge of the Kherson District Administrative Court Olena Kovbiy, Judge of the Civil Cassation Court under the Supreme Court Serhiy Burlakov became members of the HCJ.
All newly elected members of the HCJ have taken the oath and will work in the body of the judiciary for the next four years.
“The election of candidates from the Congress of Judges of Ukraine will allow unblocking the work of the High Council of Justice and restore its institutional ability to make decisions, since with the newly elected members the quantitative composition of the HCJ will be 15 people, and this is the necessary quorum for the work of a collective body,” the Council of Judges said.
As reported, the G7 Ambassadors’ Support Group in Kyiv said it expects the appointment of eight new members of the High Council of Justice from the candidates vetted by the Ethics Council.
“G7 ambassadors look forward to the Congress of Judges appointing eight 8 new members of the High Council of Justice from the pool of candidates vetted by Ethics Council. Making the HCJ operational ASAP is an important step in Ukraine’s judicial reform, in line with its European path,” it said on Twitter on Tuesday.
The 19th Unscheduled Congress of Judges of Ukraine will be held on January 11-13.
Prices for Ukrainian wheat, corn rape and sunflower remained unchanged over the past week of January 5-12, while soybean prices are rising towards Poland and Italy, where premiums for it may reach EUR20/tonne.
As reported by brokerage company Spike Brokers (Kiev) in Telegram-channel on Thursday, last week, it concluded deals on DAP terms (seller bears the risk for the cargo before delivery to the destination) for the delivery of wheat to Ukrainian ports in January-February for 8 thousand UAH / ton. UAH/ton, corn to Ukrainian ports and the Slovakian border for $208/ton and $230/ton, soybeans (GMO) to Poland for $528/ton and sunflower to Romania for $540/ton.
According to the brokerage, corn prices in Ukraine remain unchanged from last week. The latest indications of buyers for last week: DAP Poland (border) $210-220/ton, DAP Hungary – $220-230/ton, DAP Romania (border) – EUR200-210/ton.
In turn, a stable supply of wheat in the world has not allowed prices to rise last week, the Ukrainian wheat is trading at stable levels of $205-210 for feed quality and $220-225 for food quality in the direction of DAP ports Odessa, Pivdenniy and Chornomorsk. Latest buyer indications: DAP Poland (border) – $220-240/ton, DAP Hungary (border) – EUR200-220/ton, DAP Ukraine (ports) – $205-225.
According to the trader, the purchasing prices for sunflower remain at the level of the previous week, although its supply began to increase in the direction of Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. In addition, the premium for high oleic sunflower remained at $35/ton. The latest indications of sunflower seed buyers are DAP Bulgaria (center) – $540-555/ton, DAP Romania (center) – $530-540/ton, DAP Hungary (center) – $530-555/ton.
In addition, during the week prices for rapeseed from Ukraine did not change due to the oversaturation of the European market. Latest buyer indications: DAP Germany (east) – EUR530-545/ton, DAP Poland (west) – EUR540-560/ton, DAP Slovakia (west) – EUR540-550/ton.
“There is a recovery in demand from the Italian and Polish soybean markets. The premium for NOT GMO soybeans is up to EUR20/ton in the direction of Italy. Demand for GMO soybeans at Ukrainian ports remains at $460-470 DAP,” the brokerage specified.
Latest indications of soybean buyers for the week: DAP Ukraine – $460-470, NOT GMO DAP Italy (south) – EUR550-560, GMO DAP Italy (south) – EUR535-540.
PJSC “Ukrnafta” in November-December 2022 has resumed sales of natural gas at the exchange auctions.
“In November-December, the company sold 17.1 million cubic meters of blue fuel on the platform of the Ukrainian Energy Exchange,” the company said in a press release on Thursday.
Besides, “Ukrnafta” also intensified its work at the market of natural gas supplies to the final consumer, the PJSC noted.
As Ukrnafta director Sergii Koretsii (who took over from Oleg Gez on November 10, 2022) said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine in late December 2022, the company plans to sell its own gas reserves in the underground storage facilities in the total volume of over 500 mln cubic meters at the exchange and/or through direct contracts.
According to him, Ukrnafta also plans to actively enter the market of natural gas supplies to end consumers.
“Just for the sake of understanding, the company used to have only five customers under direct contracts. Now we plan to become a reliable long-term partner both for large industrial enterprises and for businesses that need small volumes,” said Ukrnafta’s director.
As reported, Ukrnafta in 2021 reduced oil and condensate production by 0.1% compared to 2020 – to 1.499 million tons, gas – by 0.9% – to 1.117 billion cubic meters, but increased the production of liquefied gas by 1% (1.2 thousand tons) – to 117.7 thousand tons.
On November 5, 2022, the Supreme Commander in Chief decided to confiscate Ukrnafta shares (except for the controlling interest in Naftohaz Ukrainy) as state property during the martial law. Before the seizure, the structures of Ihor Kolomoyskyy and Hennadiy Boholyubov owned about 42% of Ukrnafta shares.
“Ukrnafta owns 85 special permits for production of hydrocarbons. On its balance sheet there are 1809 oil and 153 gas wells. The company owns 537 gas stations, of which 449 were in operation at the end of December 2022. The rest were either damaged as a result of military operations or are located in the temporarily occupied territories.
More than 244,000 people applied for asylum in Germany last year, with citizens of Syria topping the list, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
The agency notes that according to German statistics, citizens of Afghanistan, Turkey and Iraq followed the Syrians in the list.
In addition, more than a million citizens of Ukraine arrived in the country, but they do not have to apply for asylum, because they immediately receive a temporary residence permit.
Berlin notes that in 2022 the number of refugees increased by 27.9% compared to 2021, especially in the last three months of 2022.
German Interior Minister Nancy Feser said the government is trying to integrate refugees as quickly as possible in the life of the new place, for this purpose, German language lessons are held, and many other measures are taken. At the same time, she noted that German authorities are trying to do everything possible to deport from the country as soon as possible those who have been denied asylum.
The dollar is getting cheaper against the euro, the yen and the pound sterling in trading on Thursday before the release of inflation data for December in the United States.
The ICE-calculated index showing the dollar’s dynamics against six currencies (euro, Swiss franc, yen, Canadian dollar, pound sterling and Swedish krona) lost 0.15% in trading, while the broader WSJ Dollar Index lost 0.22%.
The euro/dollar pair is trading at $1.0775, compared to $1.0757 at the close of the previous session, as of 7:40 a.m. Ksk.
The U.S. currency pair with the yen dropped to 131.47 yen, compared to 132.49 yen in previous trading.
The exchange rate of the pound to the dollar rose to $1.2167 against $1.2149 the day before.
Thursday traders’ attention was fixed on the report of the U.S. Department of Labor on the last month’s dynamics of consumer prices in the country. The consensus forecast from experts polled by Trading Economics suggests that inflation in the U.S. slowed to 6.5% in December from 7.1% in November. The data will be released at 4:30 p.m. Moscow time.
Signals of weakening consumer price growth in the U.S. speak in favor of a further slowdown in the Federal Reserve’s (Fed’s) tightening of monetary policy.
Meanwhile, U.S. central bankers aren’t in a hurry to abandon their hawkish stance: earlier this week, Mary Daley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank (Fed) of San Francisco, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that she thinks the Fed will have to raise the rate above 5% to achieve its inflation target.
Her colleague at the Atlanta Fed, Rafael Bostic, also confirmed his earlier opinion that the rate would be raised above 5%. Currently, its range is 4.25-4.5%.
The dollar/yuan pair exchange rate fell to 6.7565 yuan on Thursday against 6.7705 yuan at the close of the previous session.
China’s inflation accelerated to 1.8% year on year in December from 1.6% in November following a rise in food prices.
EURO, pound, U.S. dollar, yen
Nigeria intends to implement new logistics projects to increase and make more predictable the exports of agricultural products from Ukraine, a similar intention announced earlier by Senegal.
The Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Mykola Solskyi has reached the relevant agreements during the meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Jeffrey Onyeama and the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Mohammad Mahmoud Abubakar, the website of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy reported on Wednesday evening.
It is specified that the meeting took place within the framework of the visit of the delegation of the Ukrainian Ministry to the countries of Africa.
The parties discussed opportunities for cooperation and expansion of trade relations between the countries, in particular the creation of a logistics hub for permanent supplies of agricultural raw materials and food products.
As reported, on January 9, Solskyy signed a memorandum of understanding in Senegal, which provides for the development of bilateral trade in agricultural products, cooperation in scientific research, investment, relations between public institutions and private organizations of Ukraine and Senegal.
It also refers to the possibility of storage of Ukrainian grain in the so-called grain hubs. At the same time, the head of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy said at the meeting that Ukraine is ready to export to African countries not only agricultural products, but also other goods, but it is necessary to focus on the development of logistics.
