French President Emmanuel Macron, German Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi have arrived in Ukraine.
A photo of the leaders of France, Germany and Italy on the train was posted on the Telegram channel of Ukrazilaznytsia on Thursday morning.
The German government has decided to extend the term of trust management of the gas company Gazprom Germania GmbH for the period and after September 2022 and rename it Securing Energy for Europe GmbH.
“The Office of the Federal Chancellor, the Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection and the Ministry of Finance have decided to extend the trust management of Gazprom Germania GmbH (GPG) until September 2022 and beyond. Specifically, the trust management is designed to ensure energy supply and must comply with the provisions of the amendments to the energy security law,” it said. in a statement from the German government.
Earlier, the German government decided to transfer the management of the company to trustees by the end of September 2022.
In addition, a rebranding is planned.
“Gazprom Germania GmbH will be renamed Securing Energy for Europe GmbH (SEFE). This will send a clear signal to the market that the goal of the measures taken is to ensure energy security in Germany and Europe. This is what the SEFE production model will be designed for,” the report says. .
A credit loan from KfW bank will help to avoid the bankruptcy of the enterprise and the “cascading” effect on the market, the Cabinet of Ministers indicates.
In early April 2022, the German Ministry of Economy instructed to transfer Gazprom Germania under the control of the Federal Network Agency. The head of the ministry, Robert Habek, justified the decision with the company’s non-transparent legal relations and violation of registration rules. The decision was valid until 30 September.
Earlier, Gazprom reported that it had ceased to control Gazprom Germania and all its assets. We are talking about the WINGAS/WIEE distributor, the astora storage operator.
In 2019, the consolidated turnover of Gazprom Germania amounted to 24 billion euros, in 2020 – 13 billion euros.
Import volumes from Russia to Germany have continued to grow since the beginning of 2022, while trade between Germany and Ukraine has fallen, Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk said.
“This is madness. Despite the Russian aggressive war, in January-April 2022, Germany increased imports from Russia by 60% (!) and transferred almost 6 billion euros more to Moscow. Trade between Ukraine and Germany fell by 11%,” Melnyk wrote on Twitter.
Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov discussed with German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht a package of military assistance to Ukraine from Germany.
“We had a productive meeting of the VTC with German Federal Minister of Defense Christine Lambrecht. We discussed the essence of the upcoming security assistance package from Germany to Ukraine. I look forward to the promised support. Thank you for staying with Ukraine,” Reznikov wrote on Twitter on Friday night .
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk will visit Germany on June 1-3.
“I am going to advocate granting Ukraine the status of an EU candidate country! …My first stop is Berlin. Many meetings with German parliamentarians and officials are planned on June 1-3,” Stefanchuk wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.
The Speaker of the Parliament expressed confidence that Germany’s support for the decision to grant Ukraine the status of a candidate country for EU membership “will further unite our states and peoples.”
According to Stefanchuk, Ukraine should be granted the status of an EU candidate country in June.
Retail sales in Germany fell by 5.4% in April compared to the previous month, according to the country’s Federal Statistical Agency (Destatis).
The rate of decline was the highest in the last year. Analysts polled by Trading Economics had, on average, expected a much smaller decline of 0.2%.
In March, the indicator decreased by 0.1%.
The reason for the accelerated decline in sales, experts say inflation, which has a negative impact on consumer spending. Food sales fell a record 7.7% last month. Sales of non-food products decreased by 4.4%, including clothing and footwear – by 4.3%.
Meanwhile, online and mail-order sales increased by 5.4%.
Retail sales in Germany in April compared to the same month last year decreased by 0.4% (after a decrease of 2.7% in March). Experts predicted growth by 4%.
