Ukraine expects to receive the first tranche of macro-financial assistance in the amount of EUR 600 million in late March-early April, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko has said.
“The first tranche of such assistance will amount to EUR 600 million and is unconditional. We hope to receive these funds at the end of March or beginning of April this year,” Marchenko said, speaking from the parliament rostrum during an hour of questions to the government on Friday.
“Ukraine will receive the second tranche after the parties approve short-term measures regarding the introduction of structural reforms, which the teams of the European Commission and the Ministry of Finance are currently working on,” the minister added.
He called the allocation of macro-financial assistance to Ukraine unprecedentedly fast.
“The Ministry of Finance is also negotiating with the government of Japan regarding the formation of a mechanism for involving the Japanese international cooperation agency JICA in a new ‘green’ program with the World Bank on a development policy loan, the so-called green DPL,” Serhiy Marchenko said.
He explained that the possibility of attracting from $500 million from the World Bank and up to $300 million from the Japanese government was being discussed.
Earlier, the European Parliament voted in favor of the proposal of the European Commission to provide Ukraine with new macro-financial assistance in the amount of EUR 1.2 billion.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal announces the possibility of signing an Agreement on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of industrial products (ACAA) with the European Union, the so-called “industrial visa-free travel” until the end of 2022.
“The interaction of the parties in the framework of the preliminary assessment and regular reports on the implementation of the recommendations provided give us reason to hope for the signing of the ACAA Agreement by the end of 2022,” Shmyhal said at a meeting of the Commission on Coordinating the Implementation of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU on Wednesday.
In addition, according to him, Ukraine expects to join the joint EU transit procedure also in 2022.
In addition, among the priorities of the government is the conclusion of an agreement with the EU on the liberalization of international transit freight traffic.
Ukraine should use EU Association Agreement to defend its rights in Europe – opinion.
The Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine considers it necessary to defend the rights of Ukraine, including by using the possibilities of the Association Agreement with the EU.
“We need to start using the Agreement with the EU as our opportunity to defend our rights in the European market. We signed the agreement not to be guilty all the time, but in order to get the right to enter the markets, to have equal rights with all European countries,” Deputy Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Mustafa-Masi Nayyem said during the Great Construction: Roads and Bridges forum in Kyiv on Friday.
According to him, the Association Agreement allows it to be revised in five years, as well as to sign additional agreements and protocols.
“In particular, Article 136 says that we can sign an additional agreement that will allow us to move to the transit liberalization. So that the countries with which we border cannot prohibit the delivery of our products to other EU countries. Yes, there can be a two-way relationship. But Poland, Hungary or Slovakia, for example, cannot prohibit us from delivering our products to Germany,” Nayyem said.
According to him, such actions by the EU countries are an artificial trade barrier and discrimination against Ukrainian carriers.
As reported, Ukraine plans to go to arbitration if Poland refuses to resolve the situation with the reduction of international haulage permits by the Polish side.
The Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine considers it necessary to defend the rights of Ukraine, including by using the possibilities of the Association Agreement with the EU.
“We need to start using the Agreement with the EU as our opportunity to defend our rights in the European market. We signed the agreement not to be guilty all the time, but in order to get the right to enter the markets, to have equal rights with all European countries,” Deputy Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Mustafa-Masi Nayyem said during the Great Construction: Roads and Bridges forum in Kyiv on Friday.
According to him, the Association Agreement allows it to be revised in five years, as well as to sign additional agreements and protocols.
“In particular, Article 136 says that we can sign an additional agreement that will allow us to move to the transit liberalization. So that the countries with which we border cannot prohibit the delivery of our products to other EU countries. Yes, there can be a two-way relationship. But Poland, Hungary or Slovakia, for example, cannot prohibit us from delivering our products to Germany,” Nayyem said.
According to him, such actions by the EU countries are an artificial trade barrier and discrimination against Ukrainian carriers.
As reported, Ukraine plans to go to arbitration if Poland refuses to resolve the situation with the reduction of international haulage permits by the Polish side.
Ukraine exported 1,640 tonnes of seeds to the countries of the European Union in January-October 2021, which is twice the figures for the entire 2020 (820 tonnes) and 5 times more than in 2019 (320 tonnes), according a Thursday posting on the website of the State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection.
“Opening the European market for us is a 10-year way. Negotiations on the recognition of domestic seeds as compliant with EU requirements began in 2011 and lasted a very long time. Now, we have every opportunity to benefit from the many years of work of negotiators – dozens of people from business and government,” the authority quoted its head Vladyslava Mahaletska speaking at the online conference Seed Forum 2021.
According to the authority, in January-October 2021, 1,210 tonnes of corn seeds, 330 tonnes of wheat seeds, and 50 tonnes of sunflower seeds and all other crops in total were exported to the EU.
To open the export of seeds from Ukraine and to comply with the phytosanitary requirements of the EU, in 2021 17 areas in Ukraine on a total of 673 hectares were assigned the status of pest-free, to be able to grow seed on them.
The statistics on COVID-19 incidence gives no reason to hope that Ukraine will remain in the green zone for the European Union, Head of the Parliament Committee on Public Health, Medical Assistance and Medical Insurance Mykhailo Radutsky says.
“Ukraine is already in the red zone for the United States and Switzerland. The EU has given a delay of one week, most likely the EU will place us in the red zone. Unfortunately, statistics does not give us hope that we will remain in the green zone,” he said on the sidelines of Savik Shuster’s Freedom of Speech (Svoboda Slova) talk show on Friday night.
“We will wait for the next meeting of the European Commission,” Radutsky said.
