President of the Council of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) Gianni Buquicchio called on the Verkhovna Rada to adopt laws that will allow the participation of international experts in the selection of judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on a competitive basis.
“In Ukraine, we have a serious problem of public trust in State institutions. Even when they do honest and good work, people do not trust them because so many corrupt practices have been revealed in the past. People do not know who they can believe,” Buquicchio has said at the Ukraine 30. Development of Justice forum on Wednesday.
“When this is not possible from the inside, trust has to be built with outside help, with the support of the international community who are ready to nominate international experts with high moral quality; experts who can ensure that candidates are properly vetted before they are appointed,” he has said.
International experts shall be working side by side with Ukrainians to ensure that your courts and judicial bodies are composed of people who live up to high moral and ethical standards, Buquicchio has said.
“Concepts and strategic orientation are on the table. Now, they should be implemented. I do hope that the Ukrainian Parliament will manage to unblock the discussions to adopt laws that enable these mixed bodies to work together for the benefit of the Ukrainian people. It is time to act and adopt the laws that will make a difference and to implement them. The Council of Europe and its Venice Commission are here to help and support you,” the Venice Commission President has said.
He has said that a key element of the December urgent opinion was the recommendation to establish a new system of competitive selection of judges, involving a screening body with international participation.
Buquicchio has said that an effective fight against corruption and respect for judicial independence and the Rule of Law have to go hand-in-hand. “There can be no effective fight against corruption without an independent judiciary and respect for the Rule of Law. Equally, there can be no independent judiciary and respect for the Rule of Law when corruption is pervasive. As long as corruption remains widespread the Ukrainians cannot enjoy the rule of law. Nor will you achieve public trust in institutions or confidence on the part of investors. Your country cannot prosper under those circumstances,” he has said.
The Venice Commission President has said that creating specialized institutions or adopting new laws will not in itself improve the ability to prevent and combat corruption. But effective, well-funded, and well-staffed anti-corruption institutions and courts that are left to do their work without undue interference will make a difference.
Ukraine will expedite the vaccination against coronavirus (COVID-19) and administer from 5 million to 7 million vaccine shots per month in summer, Ukrainian Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said.
“We are planning to reach the target [from 5 million to 7 million vaccine shots per month] sometime by summer. Yet again, that would require everyone’s compliance with the earlier agreements, and that constitutes a problem,” Stepanov said on the Svoboda Slova program aired by the ICTV television channel on Monday night.
There are few vaccinations on weekends because doctors tasked with administering the vaccine at the first stage have their days off, he said when commenting on the opinion that the vaccination process might take over a decade unless vaccination is expedited.
The minister assured the audience that the number of vaccine shots would grow to 10,000 this week.
Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises increased the production of general rolled products, according to recent data, by 0.5% in January-February this year compared to the same period last year, to 3.156 million tonnes.
According to the report of the Ukrmetalurgprom association on Tuesday, in the first two months of the year steel production decreased by 1.1%, to 3.513 million tonnes, while cast iron output increased by 4.5%, to 3.506 million tonnes.
In February, 1.493 million tonnes of rolled metal, 1.674 million tonnes of steel, and 1.688 million tonnes of cast iron were produced.
As reported, over 2020, Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises increased the production of general rolled products by 0.7% compared to the previous year, to 18.344 million tonnes, reduced steel output by 1.4%, to 20.549 million tonnes and increased cast iron production by 1.5%, to 20.358 million tonnes.
PrJSC Zaporizhkoks, one of the largest Ukrainian coke and chemical producers, part of Metinvest Group in January-February this year reduced production by 1.1% compared to the same period last year, to 140,100 tonnes.
According to the company, 66,100 tonnes of blast furnace coke were produced in February, while a month earlier – 74,000 tonnes.
As reported, Zaporizhkoks in 2020 increased production by 3.1% compared to the previous year, to 853,120 tonnes.
Zaporizhkoks produces about 10% of coke produced in Ukraine, owns a full technological cycle of processing coke-chemical products. In addition, it produces coke oven gas and pitch coke.
Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of mining companies. Its main shareholders are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart-Holding (23.76%), jointly managing the company.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the managing company of Metinvest Group.
CUTS, METINVEST, METINVEST’S COMPANIES, OUTPUT, ZAPORIZHKOKS
The deficit of Ukraine’s foreign trade in goods in February 2021 fell by 47.5%, to $0.32 billion, while the deficit of foreign trade in January-February 2021 slightly grew – by 5.9%, to $0.6 billion
According to the State Customs Service, imports in the first two months of this year showed an increase over the same period last year by 4.5% and amounted to $9.09 billion, and exports – by 4.4%, to $8.49 billion.
At the same time, in February, imports rose to $4.87 billion, which is 6.5% higher than the same period last year and 15.4% higher than in January.
As for exports, last month it also showed an increase of 14.8% compared to February 2020 and 15.8% compared to January, reaching $4.55 billion.
In general, the trade turnover in January-February this year totaled $17.57 billion, which is 4.44% higher compared to the same period last year.
As Deputy Minister of Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture, Trade Representative of Ukraine Taras Kachka said, in February Ukraine increased the export of confectionery products by $50 million, or 15% compared to February 2020.
“The largest export markets [for confectionery products] were Romania, Poland, Belarus and Azerbaijan,” he wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
Kachka also pointed to an increase in the export of industrial goods to $398 million in February, which is 9.6% more than the same period last year and 21.6% more than in January. The trade representative said that $294 million of export of these goods falls on the EU (Hungary, Germany, Poland).
“Metallurgy began to feel better. Exports of ferrous metals (group 72) in February amounted to $764 million (a rise of 12%),” the trade representative said.
Exports of metal products last month showed an increase of 22% versus February 2020, to $77.2 million. The largest supply markets for them were Poland, Romania, Germany, the trade representative said.
He also noted an increase in the export of sunflower oil in February by 12% versus February last year and by 14% versus January, to $587 million. “India and the Netherlands are increasing supplies, China is cutting back a little,” he said.
“Meal (group 2) grew by 25.7% and amounted to $169 million. France and China began to buy more,” Kachka wrote.
As indicated by the State Customs Service, the largest trading partners in February were China (negative balance of $1.8 billion), Russia ($1.1 billion), Germany ($1.3 billion).
At the same time, the trade representative said that exports to the EU in February increased compared to last year by almost 28%, to $1.97 billion, and to Asia – by 17.4%, reaching $1.48 billion. At the same time, exports to the CIS countries decreased in February 12.3% compared to February 2020, to $461 million.
“We should note the revival with Britain – in the first two months of this year we exported products worth $145.2 million, which is 35% more compared to January-February 2020,” Kachka wrote.
According to customs statistics, in February this year, trade between Ukraine and the U.K. amounted to $503 million: exports were $209.5 million, and imports were $294 million.
Shipbuilding Smart Maritime Group (SMG) of Smart Holding, which unites Kherson and Mykolaiv shipyards, has modernized and put into operation dry-cargo vessel Gelius 1 (under Saint Kitts and Nevis flag).
According to a Wednesday press release of SMG, during the modernization, the vessel was extended by 25.35 meters with an insert and became a two-hold vessel. At the same time, the total volume of the holds increased by more than 64%, to 7,377 cubic meters.
In addition, there are hydraulically operated Folder-type hatch covers. The weight of the insert together with hatch covers was 393 tonnes.
Thanks to the modernization, carried out according to the project of the Marine Engineering Bureau (Odesa), the deadweight of the vessel at a draft of 4.85 m (summer waterline) increased by 54%, or by 1935 tonnes, to 5,492 tonnes.
The vessel Gelius 1 (project 003RSD04/ALB02, Caspian Express type) was built at the Ceksan shipyard, Tuzla (Turkey) in 2007. Its initial design dimensions were 89.95 x 15.87 m, depth 5.75 m, deadweight was 3,640 tonnes.
Smart Maritime Group is the largest shipbuilding company in Ukraine, uniting the shipbuilding assets of the industrial and investment group Smart Holding: Mykolaiv and Kherson shipyards. The production facilities of SMG allow building medium-tonnage full-scale vessels and carrying out complex ship maintenance works. The customers of the shipyards are companies from the Netherlands, Norway, Great Britain and other countries of the world.
In 2020, the company modernized and repaired 55 vessels, built two chemical tanker hulls.
