Ukraine has officially completed the ratification of the Istanbul Convention and sent respective documents to Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe Bjorn Berge.
Secretary General of the Council of Europe Marija Pejcinovic Buric has welcomed this fact.
“I warmly welcome Ukraine’s deposit today of the instrument of ratification of the Istanbul Convention. Ukraine is the 36th state party to this landmark treaty,” she said on Twitter on Monday.
The document will enter into force on November 1, 2022.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday signed the law on ratification of the Istanbul Convention, adopted by Parliament on Monday.
“Signed! The Law on the ratification of the Istanbul Convention. Its main content is simple, but extremely important. This is an obligation to protect women from violence and various forms of discrimination,” the head of state wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine is awaiting ratification of the free trade agreement (FTA) by the new Knesset after the elections on September 17. “We expect the ratification of the free trade agreement by the new Knesset after the September 17 elections. This will allow increasing the volume of trade between our countries,” Zelensky wrote on his Facebook page on Monday evening following a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The president also noted that Ukraine and Israel had signed four important documents that will expand contacts between the countries in education, culture and sports. In addition, close cooperation in the agricultural sector is expected.
“I invited Israeli companies to come to work in Ukraine: to build roads and infrastructure, invest in medicine, education, energy saving and, of course, in IT. In the next five years we will grow rapidly, so Ukraine today is the most attractive place for strategic investors,” Zelensky said.
President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine has signed the law on ratification of a memorandum of mutual understanding between Ukraine and the European Union on the allocation to Ukraine of macrofinancial assistance from the European Union to the tune of EUR 1 billion, the presidential website said. By implementing the memorandum, Ukraine will be able to receive additional funding from the EU to the tune of EUR 1 billion to be used for purposes stated in the national budget.
In order to receive each of the two tranches of the EU’s financial assistance to the tune of EUR 500 million each, Ukraine must meet certain conditions that have been agreed upon by the parties in such areas as tax and customs policy, fighting corrupting, small-scale privatization, management of state-run enterprises, corporate management in state-owned banks and banking supervision, and further reforms in power industry, health care, and social care.
As was earlier reported, the Verkhovna Rada ratified the memorandum on November 8, 2018.
The agreements were signed in Kyiv on September 14, 2018, following President Poroshenko’s earlier agreements with leaders of EU institutions as a result of the East Partnership Summit that took place in Brussels on November 23, 2017, and the 20th Ukraine-the EU summit that was held in Kyiv on July 9, 2018.
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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed a bill on the ratification of the Guarantee Agreement (a draft access to long term finance project) between Ukraine and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) passed by the Verkhovna Rada on April 5. “The agreement creates a legal framework for the development of cooperation between the parties, involving long-term investment resources in the economy of Ukraine in the amount of $150 million under state guarantees. The document calls for Ukreximbank to receive loans from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development to provide Ukrainian small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) with medium and long-term financing for production needs: investment lending and working capital financing,” the press service of the President of Ukraine said last week.
The implementation of the access to long term finance project will have a positive impact on the development of SME, expansion of production capacities of the real sector, preservation of existing and creation of new jobs.
