Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, before the IMF Board of Directors made a positive decision on the allocation of $2.2 billion to Ukraine for the fifth tranche under the EFF extended financing program, signed the law on resetting the Bureau of Economic Security (#3840-IX), the adoption of which was one of the structural beacons of the program.
Information about the signing of the document by the head of state is posted on the website of the Verkhovna Rada.
“An important step forward was the adoption last week of the law on reforming the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine. It is necessary to quickly and decisively implement this law”, – said the head of the mission of the International monetary Fund (IMF) in Ukraine Gavin Gray at a press conference on Friday evening after the allocation of the tranche to Ukraine.
As reported, the Verkhovna Rada on June 20 by 239 votes with the required minimum of 226 votes adopted the law on the reset of the BEB. “The text is agreed with partners. With independent selection of the new head of the BEB, recertification and personnel selection. With the participation of foreign experts and Ukrainian business. It could have been better, but already well done,” – commented on the adoption of the first Deputy head of the relevant Committee of the Rada Yaroslav Zheleznyak.
According to him, according to the document, the new head of the BEB is selected by a commission of six members, half of whom are international experts with the right to a casting vote. Re-certification is carried out by a commission of six people each from the newly elected BEB director and from international partners, but at the suggestion of the Ukrainian business community. In addition, a Personnel Commission created according to the same scheme will work for the next three years.
“Guaranteed independence of the BEB director at the level of NABU/SAP/NAPK. And many more important changes about the independence of the institution. It is always possible more and better, but in general very ok”, – summarized Zheleznyak.
BEB reboot, IMF, LAW, ZELENSKY
The Association “Insurance Business” (ASB) appealed to the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada with a request to postpone the deadline for bringing the activities of insurance companies in line with the requirements of the law “On Insurance”, according to the information of the association. According to the new version of the law “On Insurance” adopted on November 18, 2021, insurers must bring their activities in line with its norms until July 1 this year
“We have prepared to the members of Parliament a very reasonable proposal to postpone this deadline to January 1, 2026,” – said the general director of the ASB Vyacheslav Chernyakhovsky.
He pointed out that during the preparation and adoption of the law it was planned that all the changes stipulated by it would be introduced under normal conditions of a relatively stable political and economic situation. But three months after its adoption, Russia’s full-scale military aggression began.
“It is clear that such cardinal changes are impossible in the new conditions of war and the struggle of the whole country with the biggest crisis in its existence,” he emphasized.
In support of this, Chernyakhovsky cites the following facts, in particular, the fact that the vast majority of NBU regulations were adopted in the last decade of December 2023, of which 10 NPAs have an ultra-high level of influence on all business processes of insurers. The consequence of these changes in legislation and regulatory framework is the need to update all internal documents of insurance companies (more than 100 documents with a total volume of more than 1 thousand pages), development of new insurance terms and conditions instead of insurance rules, forms for all insurance contracts, new software, etc.
“Based on this, insurers actually do not have the technical and physical ability to implement all these cardinal changes for the first half of 2024, which also accounts for the compilation and submission of all annual reports to all government agencies, the audit of financial statements, owners’ meetings, etc.” – is noted in the report
As confirmation of the data of the survey conducted by three insurance associations (ASB, LSOU, NASU) in April 2024 on readiness for the new norms of the law, which showed that out of 59 insurance companies that participated in the survey (61% of the total number of companies in the market, which own 86% of the total amount of premiums), only 20% believed that they will be fully ready to complete the necessary modernization of their activities before the date of entry into force of the requirements of the new law.
The Law “On Insurance” also introduces new capital requirements: the minimum amount of which is raised to UAH 32 mln. or UAH 48 mln. depending on the classes of insurance activities and regardless of the size of business and liabilities of the insurer, which negatively affects primarily insurers with Ukrainian capital, the report says.
“Such requirements put in unequal conditions small (mainly with Ukrainian owners) and large insurance companies. It is especially difficult to fulfill them to regional insurers, in particular, working in the regions most affected by Russian aggression: Zaporizhzhya, Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Odessa regions”, is noted in the message.
The draft law No. 10346 on state regulation of production and circulation of ethyl alcohol, alcohol distillates, bioethanol, alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, tobacco raw materials, liquids used in electronic cigarettes, and fuel adopted by the Parliament provides for a number of exemptions for craft products.
This was announced by Ivan Marchuk, Chairman of the Subcommittee on State-Business Interaction and Investment of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Economic Development.
“For the first time in more than 30 years of our independence, we have jointly structured legislation designed to lay down the most comfortable and unified principles for the development of the Big (small) Craft Four – small winemakers, small distillers, small honey producers and small brewers,” he wrote on Facebook.
Marchuk called the main elements of the “craft revolution” the permission for small brewers to produce 1 million liters and at the same time have a declaration instead of the burdensome and costly certification of production.
For all craft producers, the rules for obtaining a license in electronic form within 10 days and reporting on production and turnover once a year were unified and re-enforced;
At the same time, fines for failure to submit or late submission of reports with inaccurate information on production and turnover volumes, etc. were reduced by 10 times.
“Of course, there is no limit to improvement, we will continue to improve the legislation for SMEs. We have already agreed to work on the possibility for small winemakers to produce semi-sparkling wines “petnats” under a “small license” and other useful benefits, which will be discussed later,” the MP summarized.
The Motor (Transport) Insurance Bureau of Ukraine (MTSBU) will hold the first session of the online course “Fundamentals of the New Law on CMTPL Insurance” on May 31 at 10:00, according to the Bureau’s Facebook page.
The session will be conducted by Roman Romensky, Head of the MTSBU Legal Department, who will talk about the basic principles and procedure for concluding insurance contracts in accordance with the basics of the new law (Section I-II of the draft law).
It is specified that participants do not need to register, it is enough to follow the YouTube live link https://www.youtube.com/live/hIQEzWFqQqc.
In connection with the adoption on May 21, 2024 by the Verkhovna Rada of the draft law “On Compulsory Insurance of Civil Liability of Owners of Inland Motor Vehicles” will hold a familiarization course on the main provisions of the bill, according to the website of the Bureau.
The familiarization course will consist of four sessions (by sections of the draft law), which will be held on the official YouTube channel of the MTSBU on Fridays at 10:00, lasting 1 hour 30 minutes, of which 30 minutes will be allocated for answering questions.
The tentative plan of the lectures is as follows: Session 1: Basic fundamentals of the New Law on CMTPL insurance and the procedure for concluding insurance contracts (І-ІІІ section of the draft law), Session 2-3: Settlement of insurance claims and the procedure for making payments (III section of the draft law), Session 4: Updating the functional work of the MTSBU and the basic principles of insurance companies’ membership in the Bureau (IV section of the draft law).
The Parliamentary Committee on the Organization of State Power, Local Self-Government, Regional Development and Urban Planning
has recommended that the Verkhovna Rada adopt in the second reading and as a whole the draft law on amendments to certain laws on expanding the powers of local governments to support the security and defense sector of Ukraine (No. 9559-d), the press service of the Verkhovna Rada’s apparatus reports.
The draft law proposes to amend the laws “On Local Self-Government in Ukraine” and “On Prevention of Corruption” to expand the powers of local governments to provide financial and material support to the security and defense sector during martial law or a state of emergency.
The draft law provides for empowering executive bodies of village, town and city councils to build, equip and maintain engineering and fortification structures.
According to the draft law, local authorities may approve local budgets and amend them, approve programs of socio-economic and cultural development, targeted programs on other local government issues, transfer funds in the form of intergovernmental transfers to the relevant local budgets in the event of temporary occupation of a territorial community and the failure to establish a military administration.
The draft law also provides for the possibility of appointing a village, town or city mayor to the position of head of the relevant military administration of the settlement(s) without dismissal. In addition, the draft law allows civil servants and local self-government officials who are on unpaid leave or in the event of downtime or suspension of their employment contract to be appointed to positions in other state and local government bodies, military administrations, and legal entities under public law.
The draft law also expands the organizational capacity of the leadership of regional and district councils under martial law in the event of a vacancy in the position of the chairman of such council.
The draft law also regulates the procedure for holding remote meetings of local self-government bodies.
The Verkhovna Rada adopted draft law No. 9559-d as a basis on April 11.
The Motor (Transport) Insurance Bureau of Ukraine (MTIBU) will conduct an introductory course on the main provisions of the draft law “On Compulsory Insurance of Civil Liability of Owners of Land Vehicles” in connection with the adoption of the draft law by the Verkhovna Rada on May 21, 2024, the Bureau’s website reports.
The introductory course will consist of four sessions (by sections of the draft law), which will be held on the official YouTube channel of the MTIBU on Fridays at 10:00 a.m., lasting 1 hour and 30 minutes, of which 30 minutes will be allocated for answering questions.
Approximate plan of lectures: 1 session: Basic principles of the New Law on MTPL and the procedure for concluding insurance contracts (I-II sections of the draft law), 2-3 sessions: Settlement of insurance claims and the procedure for making payments (Section III of the draft law), Session 4: Updating the functional work of the MTIBU and the basic principles of insurance companies’ membership in the Bureau (Section IV of the draft law).
To participate in the online course, you do not need to register, just follow the link on the specified day at 10:00.
Session links:
31.05.2024 https://www.youtube.com/live/hIQEzWFqQqc
07.06.2024 https://www.youtube.com/live/sy_nYwJzV7c
14.06.2024 https://www.youtube.com/live/EjkFx85kJ6I
21.06.2024 https://www.youtube.com/live/quhN5IfmApc
