KYIV. April 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU has been fully ratified by 14 states, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Yevhen Perebyinis has said.
At a briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday, he named these countries: Bulgaria, Great Britain, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia and Sweden.
The agreement was ratified by the parliaments and submitted to head of state for signature in Luxembourg, Finland and Spain. In Germany, Czech Republic and the Netherlands the agreement was ratified by one of the houses of parliament. In Austria, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Portugal, Slovenia and France the preparations for the ratification continue.
“We are grateful to those states which have ratified the agreement, and hope that the rest of the EU member states will speed up the ratification of the agreement in order to complete the entire process in 2015,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
KYIV. April 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The European Union isn’t considering any further postponement or review of the implementation of a deep and comprehensive free trade area agreement with Ukraine (DCFTA), Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Jan Tombinski has said.
Speaking to Interfax-Ukraine on the results of trilateral talks between Ukraine, the EU and Russia, he said that the European Commission is ready to consider Russia’s concerns in detail and try to find a solution regarding these aspects within the framework of the flexible, deep and comprehensive free trade area agreement. However, neither the further postponement of the implementation of the DCFTA nor the review of the DCFTA agreement is on the agenda, he said.
The trilateral technical negotiations were held over the past two days, Tombinski said. The purpose of the negotiations was to discuss answers to Russian concerns about the DCFTA, which was part of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. The sides presented their viewpoints and reached an understanding on some issues, he said, adding that certain matters were referred to the political level.
Tombinski said that the European Commission views tripartite negotiations as a form of EU support of the Minsk agreements. The European Commission has always said that it is prepared to do the utmost, including providing political support for the trilateral process, to accelerate the resolution of the Ukrainian conflict, he said.
KYIV. April 21 (Interfax) – U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden assured Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko in a recent phone call that the United States is ready to extend $1 billion worth of loan guarantees and additional non-lethal military assistance to Kyiv, the Ukrainian presidential press service has reported.
“Vice President Biden informed [Poroshenko] that the United States is ready to provide Ukraine with loan guarantees amounting to $1 billion as part of the financial support package in 2015. He also announced the funding of projects to send humanitarian aid to displaced persons and people affected by the war in Donbas,” the press service said.
“The parties also discussed further actions in the sphere of defense, including plans to extend additional assistance to Ukraine,” he said.
During the phone call, Poroshenko thanked Biden for Washington’s decision to send U.S. soldiers to Ukraine to take part in the Fearless Guardian 2015 joint drills on Ukrainian soil.
“It is a new and important page that has already proven the strategic level of partnership between Ukraine and the U.S.,” the Ukrainian president said.
KYIV. April 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The interagency working group on coordinating the return of laundered money to Ukraine has prepared proposals on amending certain relevant Ukrainian laws, the press service of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) has reported.
“The working group headed by Deputy Prosecutor General Vitaliy Kasko continues operating and the ways of returning funds illegally withdrawn by former high-ranking officials [hiding] outside Ukraine are being discussed at the interagency level,” reads a PGO report which was published on Monday.
Proposals to amend Ukrainian laws aimed at improving the mechanism on applying sanctions for the violation of the procedure on placing currency assets outside Ukraine have been prepared by the working group.
“The amendments aim at increasing payments to the Ukrainian national budget at the expense of those who violate the established rules of currency regulation and try to hide funds abroad,” the PGO said.
KYIV. April 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian grain exports since the start of the current agricultural year (July-June) as of April 20, 2015 totaled almost 27.7 million tonnes, including 9.83 million tonnes of wheat, according to an Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry of Ukraine press release.
The ministry said that 12.42 million tonnes of corn and 4.26 million tonnes of barley were supplied to foreign markets. Other grain exports totaled 204,000 tonnes.
As reported, with reference to the State Statistics Service, Ukraine in 2014 harvested a record high of 63.8 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops (excluding Crimea), which is 2.4% more than in 2013.
In late January, the ministry and grain market players signed a memorandum of understanding on grain exports in the 2014/2015 MY. In addition to the memorandum, the volume of wheat exports was defined – 12.8 million tonnes, including 7.1 million tonnes of food wheat, corn – 20.2 million tonnes, barley – 4.2 million tonnes.
KYIV. April 21 (Interfax) – Ukraine imported natural gas from Europe at an average price of $277.4 per thousand cubic meters in February 2015, down 14% from $322.5 in January.
The State Statistics Service said that Europe supplied 1.197 billion cubic meters of natural gas worth $332.063 million in February.
Ukraine received 450.584 million cubic meters (mcm) of gas worth $125.3119 million from Germany (average $278.1), 416.986 mcm for $117.666 million from Hungary ($282.2), 214.552 mcm for $56.565 million from Norway ($263.6), 94.426 mcm for $26.325 million from Britain ($278.8), 10.73 mcm from Switzerland for $3.125 million ($291.2) and 9.993 mcm for $3.072 million from Luxembourg ($307.4).
Ukraine imported 2.266 bcm of gas from Europe for $676.564 million in January-February 2015.
The State Statistics Service did not say how much gas Ukraine imported from Russia in February, but pipeline operator Ukrtransgaz said 924 mcm were imported from Russia in February, as much as in January 2015.
