Prime Minister of Ukraine Denis Shmygal is on a working visit to Luxembourg.
“We start our visit to Luxembourg with a meeting with Prime Minister Luc Frieden. We will discuss the continuation of support for our state and focus on the issue of confiscation of Russian assets,” Shmygal wrote in his Telegram channel.
Agrarian Ministers of Ukraine and the Federal Republic of Germany Mykola Solskyy and Cem Ozdemir discussed the operation of the sea corridor from the ports of Odessa region within the framework of the meeting of the EU Council on Agriculture and Fisheries (AgriFish), which is held in Luxembourg on October 23-24, the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine reported.
According to the report, the parties also discussed the export of Ukrainian agricultural products to Europe, including the transit of grain to European ports.
Solskyy said that Ukraine within the framework of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Grain from Ukraine initiative plans to send ships with humanitarian grain to African countries. In particular, 25,000 tons to Nigeria, 32,000 tons to Sudan and 12,500 tons to Somalia.
Ozdemir expressed his solidarity, noting that his country will continue to support Ukrainian farmers.
“Germany will continue to support Ukraine and stands in solidarity with it,” the press service of the German Ministry of Agriculture quoted Ozdemir as saying on Twitter during talks on the sidelines of the AgriFish meeting with Ukraine’s agro-politics minister Solskiy.
The German side also said that the agrarian ministers of the two countries discussed the prospects for expanding solidarity corridors, the efficiency of export routes and the strengthening of the Ukrainian agribusiness sector.
14 armored ambulances manufactured by the British company Venari have been sent to Ukraine from Luxembourg, the Ukrainian embassy in Belgium and Luxembourg said.
“Already in the near future the vehicles will be sent to the front line, where they will carry out their main mission – to save the lives of our defenders defending our state, as well as civilians who constantly become victims of barbaric Russian shelling,” the message says.
It specifies that the action was realized within the initiative “Ukraine is calling”, organized by the Community of Ukrainians in Luxembourg LUkraine asbl, and supported by the embassy of Ukraine in Belgium and Luxembourg.
The aim of this initiative was to raise 10 million euros for the purchase of 112 ambulances and fire-fighting vehicles.
“We express our great gratitude to the Luxembourg Ministry of Defense, in particular to Mr. François Bausch, Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Defense of Luxembourg, Steve Tull, Chief of the General Staff and Oliver North, Deputy Chairman of the Venari Group. Special thanks to the President of LUkraine Mr. Mykola Zharov, Vice-President of LUkraine Inna Yaremenko and also to the entire LUkraine team”, the diplomatic mission summed up.
Luxembourg opens an entrance for Ukrainians in accordance with the recommendations of the EU Council, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said.
“Luxembourg is opening for all types of travel of Ukrainians in accordance with the recommendations of the EU Council. One more EU country, with which we are restoring full validity of visa-free travel,” Kuleba said on his Twitter microblog on Tuesday evening.
Kuleba said that before buying tickets, it is necessary to check all the conditions for entering the countries according to the interactive map of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Dmytro Razumkov notes the constructive cooperation between Ukraine and Luxembourg at the inter-parliamentary level at international platforms, the Ukrainian parliament said on its website.
“Our states are constructively cooperating on international platforms, in particular, within the PACE. Ukraine appreciates the support that Luxembourg provided even at the beginning of the annexation of Crimea,” Razumkov said at a meeting with representatives of the Foreign and European Affairs Committee of the Luxembourg Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday.
According to the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, the exchange of visits and the format of personal meetings at various levels are important elements of inter-parliamentary cooperation. “Cooperation and coordination of our parliamentary delegations at international platforms are also important,” he said.
After that, Razumkov invited a delegation from the Chamber of Deputies of Luxembourg to visit Ukraine.
The chairman of the parliament believes the members of the Foreign and European Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies of Luxembourg will continue to support Ukraine’s efforts to restore its territorial integrity within internationally recognized borders. He drew attention to Ukraine’s attempts to achieve progress in a peaceful settlement of the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict. Razumkov also expressed gratitude to Luxembourg for the constant sanctions policy against Russia.
“We remember well that Luxembourg was a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, and it was your representatives who had a clear position and provided assistance to our country,” Razumkov said.
According to the chairman of the parliament, in 2014 Ukraine chose its own path, to the EU and NATO, and this decision is enshrined in the Constitution. “We have made our choice and will not withdraw from it. However, part of our territories is occupied, and we continue to lose our servicemen. We have lost two servicemen over the last four days,” Razumkov said.
Some international experts believe that Switzerland and Luxembourg should be added to the list of offshore countries. They propose changing transfer pricing laws and toughening control over exports and increase transparency of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine to reduce the removal of profits from Ukraine. These are the conclusions of the authors of a study, titled “Profit flows from Ukraine’s iron ore exports” conducted with the support of the European United Left – Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) European Parliamentary Group initiated by independent trade unions of Kryvy Rih. The study presented in Kyiv said Ukraine’s economy loses about $3 billion annually because profits are removed from Ukraine. When exporting iron ore, prices were allegedly deliberately lowered by an average of 20%, as a result. In 2015-2017, tax losses and the withdrawal of profits from the country amounted to $520 million per year. Based on other studies, prices for agricultural products and metal exports are undervalued by more than 20%.
Chief researcher Oleksandr Antoniuk said macro-financial assistance of the European Union at that time was $460 million per year.
According to him, this study was presented at a press conference in the European Parliament last week and its results were published in the Spiegel publication.
In turn, Pavlo Vikniansky, one of the leaders of the Republic party, said that “the oligarchic clans of Ukraine systematically withdraw huge amounts of money to offshore companies.”
According to the study, the authors proposed to hold a public discussion of changes in legislation on transfer pricing to eliminate all clauses that allow exports at reduced prices, to disclose information on taxes in the extractive industries paid by exporters outside Ukraine, in line with EU directives.
In addition, it is proposed to disclose information of the State Fiscal Service on the control of export operations, if necessary, make changes to the legislation on trade secrets.
The authors also support the control of all major export operations, regardless of the export geography and the exporter’s connection with the importer, return Switzerland and Luxembourg to the list of offshore zones and analyze tax rates in other countries importing Ukrainian goods in detail.
