Representative of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk has said that the most important and urgent changes to the Constitution of Ukraine must be made within coming year. “I think that the most important things should be made in the first year, because this first year we, first, have a lot of support from the people of Ukraine. Secondly, having the worked out mechanisms, we have the opportunity of passing them through the Verkhovna Rada. And, thirdly, we have the opportunity of monitoring how they achieved their goal,” he said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
Stefanchuk said that the analysis of all recent changes to the Constitution showed that about 20 or even more articles do not have a definitive version. “Today we have come to a situation where we do not have the only true legally interpreted text of the Constitution. This is the result of not thoughtful, not verified and not planned work of the Verkhovna Rada, which today has led to the fact that the state, celebrating Constitution Day, has no single unified text of the Constitution,” he said.
The presidential representative in the Rada also considers it wrong that any reform of the Constitution concerned a change in public authorities, but a question of guarantees of human and civil rights had no standing in the country.
Stefanchuk said that it is necessary to conduct a “functional audit of the state” and clearly define which institution is responsible for what.
The representative of Zelensky in parliament said that the possibility of adopting a new Constitution is still a matter of discussion, and there are different approaches.
Leader of the Ukrainian Batkivschyna party Yulia Tymoshenko has said the country needs a new constitution. “Ukraine needs a new Constitution,” Tymoshenko said on the Ukraina television channel on Friday.
The current one is not working for the protection of human rights, she said. The text of the Fundamental Law should be written by the public with “broad, large-scale debate, with the understanding of every comma and every letter,” she said.
“Essentially, this should be a public agreement among all citizens and not the top-down rules that benefit officials and politicians,” she said.
A new constitution should be adopted at a referendum, “not as a mere formality, but for real, so that people know what they spell out in that constitution and what they gain from it,” she said.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed Iran, Ukraine, Syria, and Venezuela at their talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka on Friday, the White House said in a report. “They also discussed the situations in Iran, Syria, Venezuela, and Ukraine,” the White House said.
The presidents also exchanged opinions on issues such as bilateral relations and arms control, it said.
The meeting between Trump and Putin continued for almost an hour and a half.
Revenue of Metinvest B.V. (the Netherlands), the parent company of the Metinvest mining and metallurgical group, fell by 7.5% or by $77 million in April compared with the previous month, to $954 million from $1.031 billion.
According to the preliminary unaudited consolidated monthly financial statements of the company, published on Thursday, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in April was $173 million, which is 6% ($11 million) more than in March of the current year ($184 million).
According to the report, the adjusted EBITDA of the metallurgical division of the group in April 2019 was $53 million ($46 million in March), including $1 million from participation in the joint venture (minus $2 million). The mining division’s EBITDA is $151 million ($148 million in March), including from the joint venture – $28 million ($19 million). The expenses of the management company were $2 million ($8 million).
Total revenue in April 2019 consisted of the sales of the metallurgical division in the amount of $791 million ($844 million in March), mining – $305 million ($340 million), and intra-group sales – $142 ($152 million).
The total debt of the company in April increased $72 million compared to March, to $2.754 billion from $2.828 billion. At the same time, cash and its equivalents increased by $113 million, to $331 million from $218 million.
Ukraine International Airlines (UIA, Kyiv) could increase frequency of flights to Tbilisi and the company is not planning flights to Batumi, UIA Communications Director Yevhenia Satska has said.
“We conduct two daily flights to Tbilisi and are considering possibility of increasing their frequency. We are not planning flights to Batumi,” she said on June 26.
Satska noted that Tbilisi is important to UIA as it has a transit network effect.
“For passengers from Europe and Baltic countries a trip to Tbilisi through Kyiv is a very good model,” she said.
At the same time, Satska mentioned high airports fees in some Georgian airports that were transferred to concession.
“There is a problem which does not leave us [UIA] a chance to develop in Georgia: airport fees are rather high in Tbilisi and Batumi as long as these airports are in concession of foreign companies. These fees are much higher than in many European cities. Their reduction could automatically let us cut the cost of flight by the same amount,” she said.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has sent to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine a bill amending some laws of Ukraine on cutting electricity tariffs.
The document was registered in the parliament on June 26. The text of the bill has not been made public.
As reported, representative of the head of state in the Ukrainian government Andriy Gerus said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky initiated the legislative change of the Rotterdam+ formula by the Rotterdam- formula in order to reduce electricity tariffs. He said that according to the document, the cost of shipping coal from Rotterdam to Ukraine should be removed from the formula. In addition, it is proposed that discounts be introduced if the quality of coal is worse. The bill also provides for a delay in the introduction of the electricity market for one year.
