The number of migrants crossing the central Mediterranean towards Europe from January to April this year is unprecedented, much higher than during the same period in 2022, Le Figaro newspaper reported Friday.
From January to April, according to EU border agency Frontex, the number of illegal arrivals to the European Union through the central Mediterranean increased by almost 300 percent compared to last year, reaching a figure of 42,200.
This is slightly more than half of all illegal entries into the EU in all directions recorded this year.
Particularly many migrants arrived in Europe via Tunisia. Compared to 2022, their number increased by 1,100%.
The migrants cross the sea in small boats that are made for them right on shore at a cost of about 1,000 euros. Gangs of smugglers are becoming more and more organized, and this partly explains the increasing influx of illegals into the EU, Frontex said.
The European Commission is studying the situation on the poultry, egg and frozen fruit markets and is ready to return to tariff quotas if Ukraine maintains the current scale of their supplies to Europe, EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said.
During the session of parliamentary committee on agriculture, which took place on Monday, he said that at the moment there is no reason to prohibit import of any other goods, except wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower, from Ukraine to Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia. These goods are also allowed to transit the territory of these five countries, reports pap.pl.
According to Wojciechowski, market inspections, according to the current legal regime, will end in November, and according to the updated rules, if the procedure begins in June, they will end in September.
“The situation in the poultry market is not only local, but European-wide, and it is very likely that if imports do continue on this scale in the current months, there will be a return to the tariff quotas that were in place before liberalization,” he said.
As the commissioner said, the EC is monitoring the situation in the egg market. There is an increase in imports, and this is also covered by the excessive import procedure. “If this procedure shows excessive imports, there will be quotas or an import ban,” he added.
According to Wojciechowski, imports of frozen fruit from Ukraine to the EU reached 44,000 tons in 2022, an increase of 18.9 percent from 37,000 tons in 2021.
“This situation will be controlled. If during the season it becomes clear that there is a threat to Polish, European producers, the European Commission is ready to impose restrictions even in an emergency, express mode. It depends on the situation during the season, how the situation will develop in the coming months,” he stressed.
According to the Commissioner, since April 2022 until the end of March 2023, Ukraine exported 48 million tons of wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower seeds, 24 million tons of which were sent to Africa and Asia, about 24 million tons – to the EU countries, 10.3 million tons of which – to the five frontline countries.
Voytsekhovskyy specified that 4.1 million tons of Ukrainian grain arrived in Poland, of which 3.3 million tons remained in the country, and 700 tons were in transit.
The largest transit country, through which the Ukrainian grain passed, was Romania, through which 9 million tons passed, of which 2.5 million tons remained in the country.
As Voytsekhovskyy stated, there was no uncontrolled import of grain from Ukraine to the EU. Because of the growing problem in the frontline countries, a temporary import ban was imposed on Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia. “Existing restrictions are ‘likely’ to be extended,” wrote the Polish publication.
The European Commissioner recalled that free trade with Ukraine is very beneficial to the Polish economy. In 2022, almost 10 billion euros of goods were exported from Poland to Ukraine, and less than 6 billion zlotys (EUR 1.254 billion) were imported. At the same time, he noted that this is 1/3 of all EU exports, the value of which was EUR30 billion. In second place is Germany with exports of EUR4 billion.
“If someone asked me why I am in favor of liberalization of trade with Ukraine, it is only because not only political but also economic reasons demanded it,” the Polish edition quoted the European commissioner as saying.
Ukrainian airline SkyUp Airlines opened a company in Malta and received the relevant certificates, which in the future will allow it to open scheduled flights in Europe, as well as to effectively perform contracts on “wet” leasing terms.
“SkyUp MT airline received its air operator certificate (AOC), CAMO (Continuing airworthiness management organization) and flight operating license (AOL). The airline’s office is located in Malta, which is one of the countries of the European Union. “This allows the air carrier to effectively carry out contracts on a wet lease, as well as in the future to open scheduled flights from Europe,” the airline’s press service said on Friday.
The issuance of the AOC and AOL license is an important milestone for SkyUp MT to begin fully operating in Europe, the statement said.
SkyUp MT reportedly registered its first aircraft in Malta, a Boeing 737-800, which received the registration mark 9H-SAU, which used to be part of the SkyUp Airlines fleet. It is a 2011 aircraft with a 189-seat cabin configuration. Upon request of the airline, it was modified by installing modern Geven seats. Also the ship was equipped with winglets, which help to save fuel.
By the end of 2023 SkyUp MT plans to receive new aircraft. Their exact number is not reported, but it is specified that they will not be from the Ukrainian fleet of SkyUp Airlines, but will come under new contracts.
“The SkyUp brand with Ukrainian DNA is becoming international. We are one of the first to do so in the history of Ukrainian aviation. For us it means opening new opportunities and scaling the business,” the press service quoted SkyUp Airlines co-owner Alexander Alba as saying.
He also stressed that the hull of the aircraft, which was the first aircraft SkyUp MT, has the inscription The Power of Freedom, which was applied within the partnership with the fundraising platform UNITED24. The airline believes that this is not only symbolic, but also will attract more fundraising for Ukraine, as the ship will operate on European flights.
Earlier it was reported that SkyUp Airlines evacuated the last plane from Boryspil airport to Iasi (Romania).
SkyUp Airlines (Kiev) carried 2.3 times fewer passengers in 2022 than in 2021 – 1.08 million, due to the full-scale aggression of Russia and against Ukraine and the closure of Ukrainian skies since February 24 last year. After the war began, the company worked on a “wet lease” with 10 airlines, including Wizz Air, SmartWings, Freebird Airlines, Tailwind Airlines, and Corendon Airlines, and in just one year it operated 7,713 flights to 204 airports worldwide on 627 routes.
Skyap Airlines LLC was registered in Kiev in June 2016, and made its first flight in 2018. The founder is ACS-Ukraine LLC of Tatyana and Yuri Alba, who also own JoinUp tour operator!
The number of refugees from Ukraine registered for temporary protection or similar national protection schemes in Europe reached 5 million 8.28 thousand as of March 28, 2023, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on its website.
In the nearly two months since Jan. 31, the increase was 185,15,000, up from 72,300 in the previous slightly longer period, and a total of about 2 million since the end of May 2022.
The number of refugees with Temporary Protection status in Europe, towards the end of January, was very close to the mark of 5 million, reaching 4.95 million. But then the data of Germany was updated for two months, which recorded a decrease of Ukrainians in the country with such status immediately by more than 140 thousand – down to 881,4 thousand.
The next update of this data for Germany at the end of March showed growth again – up to 922.66 thousand.
According to UNHCR data, collected from the national governments, most refugees with temporary protection statuses are still in Poland – 1 million 577,29 thousand for almost two months their number increased by 14 thousand. Total number of refugees from Ukraine, according to the Polish border service since the war began, was 10.819 million people, and in the opposite direction to Ukraine 8.966 million left.
The third place in the receipt of Ukrainians is occupied by the Czech Republic, where the number of people registered for temporary protection increased from the end of January by 16.9 thousand – to 502.0 thousand.
The fourth place is occupied by the United Kingdom – 191,9 thousand (with increase of 33,1 thousand).
Italy now occupies the fifth place – 173.21 thousand (an increase of 2.9 thousand), and Spain is on the third place with a small gap – 171.87 thousand (an increase of 10.9 thousand).
Bulgaria goes next with an indicator of 155.46 thousand (3.8 thousand increase), and Romania – 123.76 thousand (an increase of 12.9 thousand).
There are more than 100 thousand Ukrainians registered for temporary protection in two countries – France and Slovakia: 118.99 thousand (data as of October 21) and 112.72 thousand (increase by 5.7 thousand).
Austria also has from 50 thousand to 100 thousand refugees from Ukraine with temporary protection status – 94.98 thousand (2.5 thousand more), the Netherlands – 89.73 thousand (4.5 thousand more), Switzerland – 83.43 thousand (4.5 thousand more), Lithuania – 76.16 thousand (2.6 thousand more).
These figures also include Ireland – 78.03 thousand (growth by 5.4 thousand), Belgium – 69.25 thousand (growth by 4.9 thousand), Portugal – 58.24 thousand (growth by 1.1 thousand), Sweden – 53.51 thousand (growth by 2.3 thousand) and Finland – 52.47 thousand (growth by 3.2 thousand).
Latvia goes next with indicators from 25 thousand to 50 thousand – 46.86 thousand (an increase of 1.6 thousand), Estonia – 44.40 thousand (an increase of 1.6 thousand), Norway – 44.01 thousand (an increase of 5.4 thousand), Denmark – 39.22 thousand (an increase of 1.5 thousand) and Hungary – 34.25 thousand (an increase of 0.7 thousand).
From 10 to 25 thousand refugees from Ukraine with temporary protection status in Cyprus – 21.84 thousand (an increase of 1.2 thousand), in Croatia – 21.35 thousand (an increase of 0.9 thousand), and in Greece – 20.96 thousand (data of December 6).
In addition, the UN statistics on refugees of Ukraine received temporary protection status in Slovenia – 8.92 thousand, Montenegro – 8.30 thousand, Luxemburg – 6.76 thousand (data of October 25), Iceland – 2.35 thousand (data of December 31), Malta – 1.74 thousand, Serbia and Kosovo – 1.28 thousand, Liechtenstein – 0.54 thousand and Albania – 0.03 thousand.
The UN also indicates countries with registered refugees from Ukraine, but no data on their status: Moldova – 107.01 thousand, Turkey – 95.87 thousand, Georgia – 25.70 thousand, North Macedonia – 6.57 thousand, Azerbaijan – 5.03 thousand, Armenia – 0.55 thousand and Bosnia and Herzegovina – 0.17 thousand.
The UN separately indicates Russia and Belarus, where the Ukrainian border was crossed by 2 million 852.4 thousand and 16.71 thousand people, respectively, but since October 3, the data for Russia are no longer updated, while that for Belarus is even older. According to the UN, the Russian Federation recorded all who crossed the border, while in Belarus – 21.83 thousand. There are no data on their status, as well as data on crossing the border of Ukraine in the opposite direction.
According to the UNHCR data as of March 28, a total of 19.741 million people left Ukraine since the beginning of the war (not counting the flow of people into the country), including 10.452 million people to Poland, 2.852 million people to Russia (data of October 3), 2.415 million people to Hungary, 2.154 million people to Romania, 1.267 million people to Slovakia, 795.6 million people to Moldova and 16.7 thousand people to Belarus.
At the same time, according to the UN, 11.200 million people arrived in Ukraine from February 28, 2022 to March 28, 2023 (excluding the data of Hungary, Russia and Belarus).
The organization recalls that in mid-2021, there were only 53.47 thousand Ukrainian refugees in the world, who sought the appropriate status, including 36.49 thousand in Europe.
The Ukrainian diaspora in the world by mid-2020, UNHCR estimated at 6.1 million, including in Europe – 5 million.
Stabilization of the Ukrainian energy system and a certain reserve of capacity allow discussing the opening of electricity exports to Europe, Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko said.
“The issue of opening exports is already on the table today. It is being considered,” the minister said on the air of the national telethon “Unified News” on Friday.
Depending on the volume of imports, he said, it could bring Ukraine up to $70 million a month and help restore energy facilities after Russian attacks.
At the same time, the head of the Energy Ministry stressed that Ukraine would refuse to export electricity in case of shortages.
As earlier reported, export of electric power was stopped by order of the Minister of Energy since October 11, 2022, after the beginning of massive Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy system. The capacity allowed by European network of transmission system operators ENTSO-E for export is 400 MW, for import – 850 MW.
The head of Ukrhydroenergo, Igor Sirota, in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine noted that Ukraine has been experiencing a 24-hour power surplus for several weeks in a row, which would be advisable to sell. Nevertheless, he stressed that “there is a lot of politics in this issue,” as there are a number of consumers who do not receive electricity. At the same time, the head of the general company explained that such consumers are deprived of power supply not because of the resource shortage, but precisely because of low network capacity.
Eurogroup finance ministers believe the collapse of U.S.-based Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) will not have a direct impact on Europe’s financial system, but is a signal of the importance of ensuring the stability of the EU banking system amid ongoing uncertainty.
“Since this bank’s presence in the EU is very, very limited, we do not see direct consequences, but we are closely monitoring developments and we take note of the strong reaction of the U.S. authorities,” EU Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said after the Eurogroup meeting in Brussels.
He noted that the eurozone economy has entered this year in slightly better shape than expected a few months ago, but turmoil in the banking system amid general volatility could arise at any time.
“Uncertainty remains very high,” the European commissioner stressed.
Eurogroup Chairman Pascal Donohue said the SVB collapse, which shook up the U.S. financial system, was one of the topics of discussion among European ministers.
“The problems (in America) arose because of the specific business model of the bank (…) and the picture here in Europe is very different. Our banks are generally in good shape,” Donohue assured.
The Eurogroup’s statement from the meeting notes that the eurozone economy has recovered significantly from the pandemic and has weathered the effects of rising energy prices. Nevertheless, economic growth is expected to “remain modest in 2023 and gradually accelerate in 2024.”
“While uncertainty about the outlook, especially geopolitical and energy factors, remains elevated, the risks to growth appear more balanced than before. This reinforces the need for fiscal policy to remain flexible,” the statement said.
The Eurogroup gave forward-looking guidelines for fiscal policy in the euro zone. Between 2023 and 2024, it should focus on debt sustainability over the medium term as well as sustained improvements in economic growth and addressing the transition to green and digital technologies through investment and reforms.
