In Ukraine started registration for the national multi-subject test (NMT) in 2024.
“From today begins registration for participation in the national multi-subject test (NMT). It will last until April 11 inclusive. This year the Ukrainian Center for Education Quality Assessment conducts registration in paperless form,” – stated in the press service of the Ministry of Education and Science.
It is noted that with the help of a special service enrollees need to independently create a personal account and perform a number of actions in it.
In particular, it is necessary to: specify registration data (contact information, category “graduate of the current year” or “graduate of previous years”, to indicate the need for special (special) conditions, to choose from the proposed list of subjects to choose from and the locality in Ukraine or abroad, where it is planned to take NMT, as well as the language of passing subjects of certification work); download scans or photocopies of registration documents; send the entered information and copies of documents for processing in the regional center for quality assessment
As reported, the NMT in 2024 will include three compulsory subjects (Ukrainian language, mathematics and history of Ukraine of 16-21 centuries) and one subject of the applicant’s choice (foreign language (English, German, French, Spanish), biology, physics and chemistry, Ukrainian literature and geography). Testing will take place during the main (May 14-June 25) and additional sessions (July 11-19).
Ambassadors of the European Union member states have approved the allocation of 5 billion euros of military aid for Ukraine under the European Peace Facility.
The decision was taken on Wednesday in Brussels on the sidelines of a meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives, the Belgian Presidency said on its social media page X.
“A deal! EU ambassadors agreed in principle to reform the European Peace Facility to support Ukraine with a €5 billion budget for 2024. The European Union remains determined to provide long-term support to Ukraine and to ensure that the country receives the military equipment it needs to defend itself,” the presidency said.
The European Union should think about reducing access to the European market of sugar from third countries at least by 10%, then there would be a place for Ukrainian sugar in the EU, which would not allow this market to collapse, said the director of the National Association of Sugar Beet Producers of Poland Rafal Strahota in the program “Between Brussels and Kiev” on farmer.pl.
“The European Union has opened up the market in recent years. It has signed a number of trade agreements with various third countries. I know it is difficult, but if we reduced access to the EU market by at least a dozen percent, there would be enough room for Ukrainian sugar, and at the same time it would not destroy the EU market,” he said.
The director of the industry association noted that no one in the European Union had raised this topic.
Strakhota recalled that the European Commission is developing a regulation on protective measures, which provides for the introduction of a limit on sugar imports from Ukraine, taking into account export data, which are based on 2022-2023. Taking these data, Strachota calculates that Ukraine will be allowed to supply Poland with 320,000 tons of sugar per year.
“This is too much,” he stated.
According to the National Association of Sugar Beet Producers of Poland, in 2023-2024, the structure of Poland’s sugar imports looked like this: 32% accounted for Ukraine, 23% – Brazil, 9% – Eswatini, 7% each – Mauritius and Colombia, 18% – other countries.
At the same time, Poland grew 2.34 million tons of sugar beet in 2023 by expanding the production area under it, which amounted to 265 thousand hectares. The average beet yield was about 64 tons/ha, with very large yield differences between individual regions. In Poland, more than 26,000 people grew beet last year.
“At the same time, from October to December 2023, average sugar prices in Poland fell by 12%, and when packaged in 1 kg packages, the price drop exceeded 20%,” said the director of the industry association.
Strahota expressed concern that before the Autonomous Trade Measures (ATM) come into effect in June 2024, the Polish market could face a problem due to Ukrainian sugar.
“We fear that by that time a lot of sugar may come from Ukraine. Let me remind you, the action has ended (the sugar season – IF-U) and sugar has been produced. It is in warehouses, and in fact in these warehouses there are still about 600 thousand of sugar, which can easily get to the EU,” – Strahota emphasized.
He recalled that in 2023 in Ukraine was sown about 250 thousand hectares of sugar beet, produced about 1.8 million tons of sugar. Domestic consumption is less than 1 million tons, so the export potential is 800 thousand tons.
“In the first three months of the current marketing year, about 200 thousand tons of sugar from Ukraine entered the EU,” the expert said.
The publication cited data according to which Ukraine supplied to Poland in 2021 17.777 thousand tons of sugar, in 2022 – 15.278 thousand tons, and in 2023 it reached 468.97 thousand tons.
“At stake is the fate of the extension of the EU trade liberalization with Ukraine for another year, that is, until June 2025 with the restriction of sugar imports from this country, but in this case, the average figures of 2022 and 2023, when imports of this raw material from Ukraine were huge, are taken as benchmarks,” regretted the director of the National Association of Sugar Beet Producers of Poland and added that the country asks the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Union to use the volume of supplies for 2021-2022 to calculate the allowable sugar imports.
The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) has identified grounds for banning the acquisition of control over lifecell group by French billionaire Xavier Niel’s DVL Telecom, a member of NJJ group.
In particular, the antitrust agency believes that it is necessary to check the relationship of control of lifecell itself and the parent company Turkcell with the person to whom the decision of the national security and defense Council of Ukraine applied personal special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions).
“When considering applications for the acquisition of control over the group “Lifecell” by the company “DVL Telecom” arose the need to verify the relationship of control of the participants of the concentration, in particular the group “Lifecell” and the group “Turkcell” with the person to whom the personal special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions) applied by the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine,” – said the press service of the AMCU on Monday.
The report states that, having considered the applications on the acquisition of control by DVL Telecom over Lifecell LLC, Global Bilgi LLC and Ukrtauer LLC (lifecell group), the AMCU has identified grounds for banning the said concentrations.
“Given that the concentrations in the form of acquisition by DVL Telecom of control over Lifecell LLC, Ukrtauer LLC and Global Bilgi LLC constitute a single transaction and will take place under a single sale and purchase agreement, a separate authorization for DVL Telecom’s acquisition of control over Global Bilgi LLC cannot be granted by the Committee either,” the AMCU notes.
Considering the above, on March 7, 2024, the Committee again started consideration of the concentration cases in the form of acquisition by DVL Telecom of control over Lifesell, Global Bilgi and Ukrtauer LLC. At the same time began consideration of the case on concerted actions, which are directly related to the implementation of these concentrations, specified in the press service.
Earlier it was reported that at the meeting on March 7 AMCU allowed DVL Telecom to acquire control over Datagroup Holding Limited (“Datagroup-Volya”). In addition, the antimonopoly agency allowed concerted actions between NJJ UPAM (Paris, France), Lorimer II Ventures Limited (Nicosia, Cyprus), DVL Telecom (Paris, France) and a natural person – citizen of Ukraine in the form of implementation of provisions on refraining from competition, provided by Section 19 of the shareholders’ agreement, which will be concluded between these entities for a period of five years.
On December 29, 2023, Turkcell, a Turkish company, signed an agreement to transfer 100% of the shares, as well as all rights and debts of Lifecell LLC (TM lifecell), Ukraine’s third largest mobile operator, including contact center outsourcing company Global Bilgi LLC and tower rental service provider Ukrtauer LLC, to the French investment company NJJ Capital.
The decision to sign the agreement was made by the Board of Directors on December 20, but as early as May 9 it decided not to disclose information about the possible deal. Turkcell specified that the nominal price of Lifesell shares is UAH 12 billion 711.849 million, Global Bilgi – UAH 47.226 million and Ukrtauer – UAH 1 billion 964.04 million.
Authorized representatives of NJJ Capital (Paris, France) and Global Bilgi LLC (Kyiv, Ukraine) applied to the Antimonopoly Committee (AMCU) for authorization of NJJ Capital to indirectly acquire a part in the authorized capital of Global Bilgi, which provides for exceeding 50% of votes in the supreme governing body of the company, as well as parts providing for exceeding 50% of votes in the supreme governing bodies of Lifesell and Ukrtauer on December 29, 2023. The applications were returned to them as they did not meet the requirements set by the committee.
On January 23, 2024, AMCU received a second application to acquire the stake that provides control in Lifsell, Global Bilgi and Ukrtauer LLC from DVL Telecom, a member of the NJJ group.
According to market participants, a problem for the completion of the deal may also be the partial seizure of stakes in the companies being sold on charges against the under-sanctioned Mikhail Fridman, who indirectly controls a minority stake in Turkcell.
Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises according to the results of work in January-February of the current year increased production of total rolled products, according to operational data, by 52.5% compared to the same period last year – up to 900 thousand tons from 590 thousand tons.
According to the information of Ukrmetallurgprom association on Friday, during this period steelmaking increased by 52% against January-February-2023 – up to 1.076 million tons from 708 thousand tons.
Iron smelting increased by 42.5% to 1.050 million tons from 737,000 tons.
As reported, in January-2024 increased output of total rolled products by 75.9% y-o-y to 453,000 tons from 257,000 tons, steel by 91.6% to 544,000 tons from 284,000 tons, pig iron by 44.5% to 555,000 tons from 384,000 tons.
Ukraine in 2023 increased production of total rolled products by 0.4% compared to 2022 – to 5.372 million tons, but decreased steel production by 0.6% – to 6.228 million tons, pig iron by 6.1% – to 6.003 million tons.
Ukraine in 2022 reduced production of total rolled products by 72% compared to 2021 – to 5.350 million tons, steel by 70.7% – to 6.263 million tons, pig iron by 69.8% – to 6.391 million tons.
For 2021, 21.165 million tons of pig iron (103.6% to 2020), 21.366 million tons of steel (103.6%), 19.079 million tons of rolled products (103.5%) were produced.
Ukraine in February 2024 compared to January has increased the volume of electricity exports 12 times, but reduced the volume of imports by a third, DiXi Group reported with reference to the Energy map portal.
As noted in its report on Friday, Ukraine exported a total of 63.1 thousand MWh (5.2 thousand MWh in January – ER), of which the most – 32% (20 thousand MWh) went to Moldova. Another 30% (19.1 thousand MWh) went to Romania, 20% (12.6 thousand MWh) – to Poland, 14% (9 thousand MWh) – to Slovakia, 4% (2.4 thousand MWh) – to Hungary, to which electricity supplies were resumed after a two-year break with the introduction of joint auctions for the allocation of sections.
It is noted that after February 11, exports exceeded imports on almost all days.
However, at the end of the month, imports were 21 MWh more than exports, totaling 84.1 thousand MWh (one-third less than January’s 122.8 thousand MWh).
40% (33.6 thousand MWh) of this volume came from Slovakia, 34% (28.7 thousand MWh) – from Romania, 16% (13.6 thousand MWh) – from Poland, 7% (6.2 thousand MWh) – from Moldova, 3% (2.1 thousand MWh) – from Hungary.
DiXi Group experts point out that in February 2023 there were no exports at all, while imports were 41% higher at 141.8 thousand MWh.
They also note that last month Ukraine received five times (February 2, 4, 27-29) emergency aid from Poland, which bought back surplus Ukrainian electricity – a total of 5.9 thousand MWh.
On February 7, Ukraine accepted excessive 1.2 thousand MWh from Poland as emergency aid.
