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.
Coal Energy S.A. (Luxembourg) with assets in Ukraine in March 2018 boosted coal production by 6.5 times, or by 10,997 tonnes, compared to the same period in 2017, to 13,007 tonnes, the company said on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
Compared to February 2018, production increased by 75.6%, or by 5,599 tonnes, it said.
As reported, Coal Energy includes ten coal mines, rock dumps processing facilities and objects for enrichment. The company’s business was significantly affected by hostilities in Donbas.
