Leader of the parliamentary faction Batkivschyna Yulia Tymoshenko proposes to begin consultations on the creation of a new coalition in the Verkhovna Rada.
“I think that now we need to hold the main discussion about whether there will be extraordinary or next ones – we still have half a year to restart – we need to start a discussion about creating a new coalition in parliament and creating a new government of Ukraine with a completely new strategy and tactics of governing the country,” Tymoshenko said at a meeting of the conciliatory council of faction leaders and parliamentary groups on Monday.
She noted that, otherwise, time will be lost and chaos will continue, which today, according to the politician, exists in the country.
Ukrainian Parliament passes law on green auctions for investors in green energy
KYIV. April 25 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Verkhovna Rada at a plenary session on Thursday passed bill No. 8449-d on green auctions for investors in renewable energy. A total of 251 lawmakers baked the bill amending some Ukrainian laws regarding ensuring competitive conditions for production of electricity from alternative energy facilities.
The document proposes the introduction of auctions from 2020 and the obligatory participation for investors in solar power plants with a capacity of more than 1 MW and wind farms with a capacity of more than 5 MW (or one turbine).
The pilot auction should be held no later than December 31, 2019, and the ProZorro electronic trading system is proposed to be the platform for the auctions. The period of granting a guaranteed tariff for transmission of electricity by the winner of the auction is 20 years.
The project assumes that the size of quotas to be put up for auction, according to the Cabinet of Ministers, is approved by the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry. During the first three years it is planned to provide wind farms and solar power plants with 30% of quotas, after this period – at least 15%.
Responsibility of producers of renewable energy facilities for misbalances is proposed to be introduced after the intra-day market is recognized as liquid, but no later than 2024.
It is proposed to reduce the current feed-in tariff for solar power plants in 2020 by 25%, and in 2021-2023 – by 2.5% annually.
For wind farms with a capacity of more than 2 MW, the tariff is proposed to be reduced in 2020 by 10% without further annual reductions.
The tariff for energy generated from biomass and biogas is proposed to be maintained at the current level.
For household solar power plants, the tariff is planned to be reduced by 10% from 2020 (currently it is EUR 0.18 per kWh). Before the start of the voting, the deputies returned the amendment, which introduces the condition for its receipt, the installation of a solar power plant up to 50 kW on roofs, facades of buildings and other hard-wall facilities.
The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a draft law on ratification of an agreement on the development of cooperation with Turkey.
The government took a corresponding decision at a meeting on Wednesday.
According to the explanatory note to the draft law available to Interfax-Ukraine, the implementation of the document will favor the implementation of technical cooperation projects – the transfer of know-how, training of personnel, the supply of equipment and materials, and will also contribute to financial projects and grants to finance the supply of goods, equipment and materials.
The agreement also provides for the creation of a Programs Coordination Office of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) in Ukraine.
On Thursday, the Verkhovna Rada passed at second reading bill No. 8044, amending to the Budget Code of Ukraine on the implementation of medium-term budget planning, which introduced three-year budget planning. An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported that 238 deputies backed the document.
“We have been working for three years to consolidate a civilized approach to budget planning in the state. This is the main reform in the field of public finance,” Finance Minister Oksana Markarova said, commenting on this decision on the ministry’s website.
She recalled that in the pilot mode, this approach has worked successfully since 2017.
The Finance Ministry said that the adopted bill establishes the rule that state and publicly guaranteed debt cannot exceed 60% of GDP, and the national budget deficit – 3% of GDP. In addition, state guarantees will not exceed 3% of the planned revenues of the general fund of the national budget, and the maximum amount of the national budget deficit in the law on the national budget cannot be larger than the deficit in the Budget Declaration.
The finance minister said that three-year budget planning is necessary to ensure strategic priorities with a financial resource, as well as to increase the responsibility of spending units.
The Verkhovna Rada’s chairman Andriy Parubiy has signed the law on the state budget for 2019. “I have just signed the law ‘On the State Budget for 2019.’ We passed it in keeping with all the requirements—by December 1. This guarantees us macrofinancial support from our international partners,” the speaker said in a tweet on Twitter on December 5.
Parubiy voiced the belief that the adopted document will be a budget “of development and growth.” “And, most of all, this is a budget to strengthen the defense and security of Ukraine,” he said. The document has been sent to be signed by the president of Ukraine.
A group of people’s deputies on the initiative of the Ukrainian Agrarian Council on December 4 registered in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine bill No. 9355-5 extending the land moratorium until January 1, 2020, the association said. “Despite the fact that Ukraine is constantly debating on the possible introduction of the land market, we have not yet been submitted a draft law on farmland turnover. This issue is extremely worrying for domestic farmers and raises many questions. Under such circumstances, it’s too early to talk about lifting the moratorium,” deputy chairman of the Ukrainian Agrarian Council Denys Marchuk said.
The authors of the draft law on amendments to the Transitional Provisions section of the Land Code of Ukraine regarding the extension of the ban on alienation of agricultural land were Oleksandr Bakumenko, Petro Yurchyshyn, Mykola Kucher, Valeriy Davydenko, Leonid Kozachenko, Andriy Kot, Mykola Liushniak, Serhiy Labaziuk, Valentyn Didych, Ivan Kyrylenko, Anatoliy Kuzmenko, Oleh Kulinich, and Vadym Ivchenko.
The association noted, with reference to the explanatory note to draft law No. 9355-5, that political speculation that the land market will be introduced from January 1, 2019 creates tension in the society and does not contribute to citizens’ confidence in the reforms that are implemented in the state.
