The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has extended the validity of green COVID certificates from 180 to 365 days.
The corresponding decree was published on the government website.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba held a telephone conversation with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian at the initiative of the French side.
“Dmytro Kuleba separately touched upon the issue of France’s recognition of Ukrainian certificates of vaccination against COVID-19. The parties agreed that the corresponding Ukrainian-French consultations will soon take place,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
The ministers noted the unprecedentedly high level that bilateral relations between Ukraine and France have now reached. The French minister expressed satisfaction with the close dialogue he had with his Ukrainian counterpart.
Le Drian expressed his gratitude to Kuleba for his personal assistance in the quick and well-coordinated relocation of the French Embassy in Ukraine to the new premises.
“The ministers welcomed the active development of economic cooperation, in particular the conclusion of four strategic intergovernmental agreements totaling more than EUR 1.3 billion. The parties positively noted a recent visit of a plenipotentiary delegation of the Movement of the Enterprises of France [MEDEF] to Ukraine, which included top leaders of a number of French companies,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine said.
The parties also discussed the prospects for the Normandy format at all levels: heads of state and government, foreign ministers, and advisers to leaders.
“Kuleba noted that Ukraine highly appreciates the efforts of France in the framework of the Normandy format, which despite the provocative behavior of Russia, remains the main platform for the settlement of the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict,” the ministry said.
In addition, Le Drian explained in detail to Kuleba the motives behind a recent German-French initiative to restore the EU’s dialogue with the Russian Federation, which did not find support among the EU member states.
“The French minister stressed that Paris is in favor of a demanding dialogue towards Moscow. The head of Ukrainian diplomacy recalled that the EU suspended summits with Russia in 2014 as a result of Russia’s aggression against our state, and without constructive steps from the Russian side, there are no grounds to talk about the restoration of this format of a dialogue,” the report said.
JSC Farmak pharmaceutical company (Kyiv) at the end of June 2019 received two new GMP (good manufacturing practice) certificates for two production sites and a new storage area commissioned at the beginning of the current year from the Polish regulatory authority, the press service of the company has said. According to the report, these sites have undergone planned recertification and confirmed their compliance with the EU’s GMP requirements.
The company passed state recertification conducted by the regulatory authorities of Ukraine and Poland in March of the current year. In particular, the company passed a GMP recertification by the State Service of Ukraine on Medicines and Drugs Control and a planned recertification of production sites, where products for the Polish market are manufactured, on the part of the Chief Pharmaceutical Inspectorate of Poland. According to the results of inspections, 19 production sites received national GMP certificates, and two more production and storage areas received European GMP certificates.
“This once again proves that the conditions in which Farmak products are manufactured comply with the European requirements. Today, all finished drug manufacturing facilities have national GMP certificates, 14 of them are certified by European regulatory authorities in Croatia and Poland. No one pharmaceutical company in Ukraine has such a level of European recognition,” Olha Oleksiychuk, the director for quality at Farmak, said.
The State Fiscal Service of Ukraine in January 2019 issued 9,707 EUR.1 movement certificates that allow goods of Ukrainian origin benefiting from favorable trade terms under a preferential trade policy of the EU, the authority has reported on its website.
The authority said that in general, during the 2016-2018 years, customs officers issued 219,000 certificates.
“As of February 1, 2019, the status of an authorized exporter has been granted to 231 enterprises, which export their products to EU countries on preferential terms,” the State Fiscal Service said.
The authority reminded that in order to be granted with the preferential access to the EU market as part of a free trade area between Ukraine and the EU, a company must confirm the origin of goods from Ukraine and receive the EUR.1 movement certificate.
The State Fiscal Service has been issuing these documents since 2016 free of charge for each consignment of goods when exported to the EU. At the same time, the status of an authorized exporter lifts the requirement to receive the certificate, the authority said.
In addition, the requirement for having the EUR.1 movement certificate does not apply to goods with a total invoice value no higher than EUR 6,000, and also, if these are goods to which the EU applies a zero import duty rate.
Six hotels had received the hotel rating certificates issued by the Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Ukraine as of October 22, 2018. The respective information is outlined in data from the register published by the ministry on October 22. The following hotels were placed to the register: two five-star hotels – Grand Admiral Club (Irpen, Kyiv region) and Kadorr Hotel Resort & Spa (Odesa), four-star Dnipro (Kyiv) and other hotels. The certificates of the hotels will expire on September 27, 2021. Grand Admiral Club was opened in 2002. The hotel has 64 rooms, including rooms in wooden cottages, four conference halls with a total area of 358 square meters and six banquet halls for up to 300 people. Kadorr Hotel Resort & Spa has been operating since 2015. The hotel has 25 rooms, as well as a conference hall with an area of 114 square meters, accommodating up to 90 people. Hotel Dnipro was established in 1994, the number of rooms includes 186 rooms, four banquet and three conference hall with a total area of 192 square meters and a negotiating room for 10 people.
As reported, the assignment of stars to hotels was suspended on January 1, 2018 due to the termination of the certification authority UkrSEPRO.
