European Union Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini has assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that the EU will continue to support Ukraine.
“The High Representative congratulated President Zelensky on his election victory and underlined that the European Union continues to stand by Ukraine, supporting the country on its reform agenda and with respect to its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity,” an EU spokesperson said in a statement.
During their meeting in Brussels, Mogherini and Zelensky discussed possible ways to make progress in implementing the Minsk Agreements for Donbas.
“Federica Mogherini stressed that the European Union is ready to support the Minsk implementation with all available means. This can include the EU’s help in support of President Zelensky’s stated objective for an inclusive approach towards the Ukrainian citizens living in the non-government controlled areas in eastern Ukraine,” according to the statement.
“High Representative Mogherini also confirmed the EU’s socio-economic support to the Azov Sea region,” the EU spokesperson said.
“The European Union continues to expect that Russia will immediately release the 24 detained Ukrainian servicemen and return to Ukraine’s custody the three vessels,” the spokesperson said.
The sides also discussed the need to continue reforms in Ukraine.
“They look forward to continue the discussions and common work at the next EU-Ukraine Summit which will take place on 8 July in Kyiv,” the spokesperson said.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) could organize a syndicated loan of EUR 80 million for state-owned Ukreximbank (Kyiv) to support renewable energy and energy efficiency private investments in Ukraine.
According to a posting on the bank’s website, EBRD will provide EUR 40 million from own account.
The provision of the loan is pending the approval of the EBRD Board on June 19, 2019.
Ukreximbank, a wholly owned state bank, was established in 1992. It ranked third among 77 banks in Ukraine in terms of total assets worth UAH 232.064 billion as of January 1, 2019, according to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
Anatoliy Hrytsenko, the presidential candidate of Ukraine, the leader of the Civil Position party, has stated that under no circumstances he will support presidential candidate Petro Poroshenko in the second round, and he also cannot agitate to vote for presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky.
“I don’t want another five years of falsehood, deceit, looting on blood for the country, and therefore under any circumstances I will not support and vote for Petro Poroshenko. I know him very well. I also cannot say to vote or not to vote for Volodymyr Zelensky,” he said on the air of TV Channel 1+1 on Sunday.
The European Union (EU) continues the U-LEAD with Europe: Ukraine local empowerment, accountability and development programme and would provide EUR 50 million for the implementation of the second phase of the programme. The press service of Deputy Prime Minister, Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Economy Minister Hennadiy Zubko has reported that this was discussed at a meeting of the deputy prime minister with Head of the Support Group for Ukraine in the European Commission Peter Wagner and Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation to Ukraine Stefan Schleuning.
“We continue successful cooperation with the U-LEAD project. The road map of cooperation will remain the same, since Ukraine’s agreement with the EU on cooperation under this project complies with the European Charter of Local Self-Government. By the end of January 2019, together with our international partners, we will prepare action plan 2020 and on its basis we will propose the structure of the Central Reform Office. We have many new tasks, in particular, work on electoral legislation and cartographic works for modeling the processes in the regions,” Zubko said.
According to him, now the country, in particular, the central and local authorities, the parliament, and local authorities, faces a number of tasks, the implementation of which will lead to the successful implementation of the decentralization reform. This is the creation of a new territorial base and the holding of elections in 2020 on the new administrative and territorial map of Ukraine.
The deputy prime minister said that synchronously, local governments, regional administrations and more than 10 ministries should advance in the creation of the sub-regional level and their own territorial structures.
“In 2020, the issue of the new electoral legislation on local elections will appear. And we will propose changes to the legislation. We will insist on involving the public in the electoral process. Time is short – two years. This is very little for these tectonic changes. However, we have strong support from international partners,” Zubko said.
Some 72% of Ukrainians are ready to support a woman candidate in the presidential elections if the party they trust nominated her as a presidential candidate, according to a study by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) conducted in October-November 2018. Only 36% of respondents expressed readiness to support a Jewish candidate, and 26% said they would vote for a dark-skinned candidate.
“Compared to 2011, when we first conducted such a survey, the support of women and Jews remained almost unchanged, while more people, from 18% to 26%, said they would support a dark-skinned candidate, KIIS said.
The study was similar to that conducted by Gallup in the United States since 1937. At the same time, the report notes that in 2015, for each of these three questions (about women, Jews and blacks), more than 90% of Americans (92%, 91% and 92%, respectively) said they were ready to vote for them.
However, previously these figures were lower in the United States. “Attitudes of Americans towards women candidates increased as a whole. Ukrainian data correspond to American data from the early 1970s,” KIIS said.
Ukrainian attitudes towards candidates of Jewish nationality and blacks are significantly lower than they were in the United States for the entire observation period. In particular, in 1937 only 46% of Americans responded positively to a question about Jewish candidates, and 37% of respondents answered positively to a question about dark-skinned candidates in 1958, when it was asked in interviews.
The all-Ukrainian public opinion poll of KIIS was conducted from October 26 to November 8, 2018. Some 2,044 people living in 110 settlements throughout Ukraine were questioned in a personal interview. The margin of error of the poll does not exceed 3.3%.
The Embassy of India in Kyiv in cooperation with the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) and the Indian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (IPMA) will hold an annual business seminar in Ukraine to promote and demonstrate the potential of India in the pharmaceutical manufacturing sectors, Indian Ambassador to Ukraine Partha Satpathy has stated at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine. “Pharmexcil is the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India. The main task of this organization is to unite all important pharmaceutical manufacturers in India. The council cooperates with the government, represents the interests of manufacturers in exports, in particular brings pharmaceutical products in compliance with the requirements of the WHO and the importing country,” the ambassador said.
President of the Indian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (IPMA) Dr. Menon, in turn, said that Pharmexcil plans to present several projects in Ukraine.
“Pharmexcil wants to find partners in Ukraine in the field of Ayurveda, clinical trials and create a joint venture for production of medicines,” he said.
The Indian ambassador noted that India is the third largest exporter of pharmaceutical products to Ukraine following Germany and France in terms of value, while Indian pharmaceutical companies supply high-quality products at a very good and competitive price.
