The State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU) and the European Commission (EU) signed the Copernicus Cooperation Arrangement formalizing plans to develop cooperation under the Copernicus Earth observation programme.
The EU delegation to Ukraine said that under the Arrangement signed in line with the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and Eastern Partnership, SSAU would provide full, free and open access to space monitoring data from its Earth remote sensing satellites, as well as to geophysical and meteorological data of regional observatories to the Copernicus programme.
According to the document, it is planned to boost cooperation between SSAU, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) in the sphere of collection and use of data of space monitoring from European Sentinel satellites of the Copernicus programme.
Under the Arrangement, the sides would promote cooperation in processing space monitoring data for joint use in the following areas: long-term management of natural resources, monitoring of marine and coastal zones, water resources management, the impact of climate change and adaptation to them, disaster risk reduction, food security and rural development, and health management issues.
Each side will fund its own activities under the programme and adhere to the principle of ‘no exchange of funds.’ The National Center Of Space Facilities Control And Test would coordinate the programme in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is confident that Ukraine will continue cooperation with international financial institutions (IFIs).
“It is clear that the achievement of macroeconomic stability has become possible, first of all, thanks to cooperation with international financial institutions. I am firmly convinced that we will continue cooperation in the future, because we are the only team in Ukraine’s history that ensured the implementation of six consecutive memorandums with the IMF [International Monetary Fund]. Before that, they promised, they took money and forgot to carry out reforms,” the head of state said at a meeting of the National Investment Council in Kyiv on Friday.
At the same time, he added that the IMF funds are sent to the country’s forex reserves, which in the past four years grew 3.5-fold, to $18 billion.
“Despite the fact that Ukraine paid more than $4 billion this year, forex reserves now amount to $18 billion. Compare with the situation that was late 2014 – early 2015: forex reserves – $5 billion, and you had to pay $8 billion. How could we avoid default? They believed us, and today the most difficult period also passed, and in these four years the forex reserves grew 3.5-fold. This is the answer where are the funds of the IMF. They are carefully preserved in the forex reserves of the country,” Poroshenko said.
Chinese Ambassador to Ukraine Du Wei believes that Sino-Ukrainian cooperation in the scientific sphere should reach a new level. He stressed the importance of developing scientific, technical and innovative cooperation between the two countries. “At the moment, China’s development has entered a new era, so Sino-Ukrainian cooperation should also enter a new era,” he said during a solemn celebration of the Day of Science at the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine on Friday.
The Chinese envoy said development of scientific, technical and innovative cooperation is very important. During the event, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine awarded prizes for the development and implementation of innovative technologies.
As reported, on May 11, the Cabinet awarded five government prizes of UAH 200,000 for the development and implementation of innovative technologies.
Representatives of Ukraine and Slovenia have signed two memorandums: the memorandum of understanding to strengthen economic cooperation and the memorandum of understanding in technical cooperation in the sphere of geodesy.
An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported that after Ukrainian-Slovakian negotiations chaired by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Slovenian President Borut Pahor on Friday in Kyiv representatives of the delegations of the two countries signed the memorandum of understanding between the Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Ukraine and the Economic Development and Technologies Ministry of Slovenia on deepening economic cooperation.
The sides also signed the memorandum of cooperation and scientific and technical cooperation between the State Service of Ukraine for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre and the similar service of Slovenia.
The harmonization of the Ukrainian power grid with the European Network of Transmission System Operators (ENTSO-E) is a strategic direction of cooperation between Ukraine and the European Union (EU) in the electricity sector, Director General of the Directorate-General for Energy of the European Commission Dominique Ristori said at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday. He said that for the merger of the power grids additional studies of static and dynamic stability are to be conducted and some technical measures are to be taken to ensure the full integration. Amendments to the market legislation and integration of the power grids should move as synchronously as possible.
As reported, in June 2017 Ukrenergo Head Vsevolod Kovalchuk signed an agreement on the conditions for the future integration of the energy systems of Ukraine and Moldova with ENTSO-E. In July the agreement came into force after it had been signed by the necessary number of European system operators.
The deadline for Ukraine’s fulfilling the requirements for accession to the united energy system of continental Europe is July 2022.
The document consists of three main parts: a catalog of requirements (unconditional fulfillment of which is necessary for making a decision on the merger of the power grids); a list of necessary additional research; and a road map.
COOPERATION, EUROPEAN NETWORK, INTEGRATION, POWER GRID, STRATEGIC DIRECTION
