Ukraine is not asking for any concessions on its way to the European Union and is implementing all the recommendations of the European Commission given to our country, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday in Kyiv at a joint press conference with President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.
“We have implemented the recommendations necessary to start membership negotiations. This applies to the rule of law, the protection of human rights and freedoms of national communities, greater transparency in the work of state institutions and strengthening of anti-corruption infrastructure,” he said.
Among the draft laws, Zelensky singled out the bill on lobbying, which “will add transparency to political processes and reliably protect the state from the destructive influence of oligarchs and others trying to circumvent the rule of law.”
According to him, “it is very important that the support of Europe and our other partners remains steady and reliable. This applies to defense and financial support. Russia needs to see that the world does not retreat in defense of freedom and international law.”
Zelenskyy said he expects sanctions actions to be strengthened, including “preventing the circumvention of existing sanctions, in particular by using European companies and the territories of Russia’s neighboring states.”
Ukraine’s share in honey imports to the EU in 2022 amounted to 24%, which allowed it to take second place among exporting countries, Beehive reported on Facebook, citing data from Eurostat and the European Federation of Honey Packers and Distributors (F.E.E.D.M.).
According to the report, in addition to Ukraine, the top countries supplying honey to the EU include China (36%), Argentina (10%), Mexico (7%), Turkey (4%), Cuba and Vietnam (3% each).
According to Beehive’s preliminary forecasts, the total amount of honey exported from Ukraine in 2023 will be 5-10% higher than in 2022.
“It can be noted that Ukraine holds its position in the market and has every chance to increase the number of exports, taking away market share from other major players,” the company summarized.
As reported, the investment holding EFI Group (Effective Investments) has started selling Ukrainian honey produced by one of its companies under the Beehive brand in UK supermarkets.
Registered in 2013, Beehive LLC’s production facilities of 5 thousand square meters are located in Cherkasy region. The daily output of finished products is 40 tons. The company’s capacity is designed to produce more than 10 thousand tons of honey per year. The company has two production lines: bottling in barrels and packaging in glass containers of various volumes for retail. Honey production complies with international standards such as Organic Standard, FDA, IFS Food, FSSC 22000, and Halal.
Effective Investments Group was founded in 2007 and is engaged in the implementation of business projects in Ukraine. It operates in various sectors of the economy: agriculture, pulp and paper industry, construction, gas industry, energy, creative industry, mechanical engineering and coal industry.
The Nova Poshta Group plans to enter six more EU countries by the end of the year, opening its first offices there, said Vyacheslav Klimov, co-owner of Nova Poshta, at the Kyiv International Economic Forum held this week.
“We are expanding. There are already eight countries. There will be six more by the end of this year,” Klimov said.
The company’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine that Nova Post will open offices in Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, France, and Austria.
At the forum, Klimov noted that Nova Post offices abroad will be bilingual in local and Ukrainian.
“We have made a firm decision that two languages will be spoken in Nova Post offices in Europe. It will be the local language and Ukrainian,” said the company’s co-owner.
At the forum, he also said that the company’s group allocates about UAH 100 million per month to the needs of the army. Klimov clarified that 3,249 employees of the company are currently serving in the Armed Forces, and 99 colleagues have been killed since the start of the full-scale invasion.
As reported, Nova Post has already opened 62 branches in Poland, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Romania, Germany and Moldova.
As of the beginning of July 2023, the Nova Poshta network in Ukraine included more than 10 thousand branches and more than 14 thousand post offices.
The Group of Companies includes Ukrainian and foreign companies, including Nova Poshta, NP Logistic, NovaPay payment system and Nova Poshta Global.
In 2023, the European Union became the largest donor to Ukraine, having already disbursed EUR13.5 billion under the macro-financial assistance instrument and expecting to disburse another EUR4.5 billion by the end of the year, European Commissioner for Economic Affairs Paolo Gentiloni said.
“Overall, the progress is very good, and I am optimistic about the prospects that Ukraine will fulfill all the conditions by the end of 2024 and beyond,” he said on Wednesday at the 4th Ministerial Roundtable on Support to Ukraine at the IMF-World Bank (WB) meeting in Marrakech.
According to him, the EU and other international partners should be proud of the fact that they contributed to covering Ukraine’s financing gap both last year and this year, and thanks to this solidarity, Ukraine’s economy is in better shape today than many expected.
“We count on the support of all international partners. We also need to harmonize the conditions of support between international donors and international financial institutions to ensure their consistency,” the European Commissioner added, emphasizing that funding remains a key factor.
He noted that Ukraine has demonstrated the ability to continue to implement important economic reforms, recalling that the current conditions of the EU financial assistance include, among other things, judicial reform of Ukraine, improved regulation of economic activity and improved bankruptcy regime.
“The European Commission’s proposal to allocate $50 billion over the next four years will allow us to significantly help meet Ukraine’s financial needs,” Gentiloni said.
EU countries may start official negotiations with Ukraine on EU membership as early as December, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said in an interview with The Guardian.
“If they are moving fast, we must match that speed,” she said.
Metsola wants formal negotiations to begin before Christmas, The Guardian writes. The decision rests with EU ministers, who will hold a formal meeting in December after a public report on Ukraine’s progress in reforming the judiciary, fighting corruption and opening markets is presented in October.
“I expect a concrete result, because the worst signal could be that we have set tasks and deadlines for these people that we cannot fulfill ourselves,” Metsola said.
According to her, the European Union has to start large-scale changes to prepare for Ukraine’s accession. At the same time, “nothing should be ruled out,” including the elimination of trade tariffs and granting Kyiv access to internal markets before full accession.
At the same time, the newspaper emphasizes, Metsola, like some other EU leaders, believes that the bloc needs to speed up access for Ukraine and the Balkan countries that have also applied in order to limit the risk of Russian interference in these former Soviet territories.
Ukraine has received the eighth tranche of macro-financial assistance in the amount of EUR 1.5 billion from the European Union, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
“Today, Ukraine has received the eighth tranche of macro-financial assistance in the amount of €1.5 billion from the European Union. In total, the EU’s budget support for Ukraine in 2023 already amounts to €13.5 billion,” Shmyhal wrote in X on Friday.
According to the prime minister, the EU’s total support for Ukraine has reached approximately €70 billion since Russia’s full-scale invasion.
