Romania files document with International Court of Justice regarding Black Sea border dispute with Ukraine

News / 17 August 2005 | 18:09

Romania said Tuesday it had filed documents with the International Court of Justice to support its suit asking the court to resolve its Black Sea border dispute with Ukraine.

The two former communist countries have been wrangling for years over the boundary line in the oil-rich sea. In September, Romania filed the suit asking the United Nations’ highest court to intervene and demarcate the border, saying bilateral talks were leading nowhere.

The Foreign Ministry said Tuesday it had detailed Romania’s position in the report filed with the court in The Hague, Netherlands. The report includes "a presentation of the juridical reasons of the demarcation option proposed" by Romania, the ministry said. It would not give further details, saying the report was confidential.

Ukraine is expected to file its own report in coming months, after which the court is to start the hearings in the case. Border disputes brought to the court, also called the World Court, normally take several years to be resolved. The court arbitrates between assenting U.N. member states, and its rulings are final and binding.

Romania and Ukraine signed a treaty in 1997 agreeing to negotiate a border settlement, but the discovery of major oil and gas deposits in the mid-1990s prompted arguments over access to areas in the Black Sea.

In 1995, Ukraine protested that Romania was seizing Ukrainian territory in the sea. Ukraine built structures on "Serpents Island," a rocky isle, to strengthen its claim.

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Ukrainian-British JV to construct a pig-breeding complex in Kiev region

News / 17 August 2005 | 17:50

Nyva Pereiaslavschyny, a Ukrainian-British joint venture agricultural enterprise, has begun construction of a pig-breeding complex in the village of Pereiaslavske (Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi district, Kyiv region) for 30,000 heads.

Oleksandr Mostypan, the owner of the Nyva Pereiaslavschyny limited liability company, disclosed this to journalists in Pereiaslavske. The complex together with equipment and bringing in of the livestock from Denmark will cost nearly UAH 35 million.

Mostypan noted that Nyva Pereiaslavschyny invested part of its own funds in the construction of the pig-breeding complex and the other part constitutes a credit of UAH 20 million that was given by the Aval Bank at annual rate of 17%.

The construction of the pig-breeding complex is slated to finish in the summer of 2006.  The first meat will go on sale in September 2006.

The pig-breeding complex envisages the nurturing and fattening of 30,000 pigs a year with the aim of selling 2,400 tons of meat. The technology of the Danish firm ACOfunk was taken as the basis for the technology and fattening in the pig-breeding complex.

The main building of the complex is designed from quickly erected structures of the Svitlovodsk-based Dniproenerhobudproekt factory.

Mostypan said that Nyva Pereiaslavschyny plans to build 5 more of such pig-breeding complexes in the coming 5 years.

The Nyva Pereiaslavschyny agricultural enterprise owns over 9,500 hectares of land, as well as the Pereiaslavskyi Experimental Grain Production Plant, which has storage capacity of 50,000 tons of grain yearly and produces 100,000 tons of mixed feed per year.

Nyva Pereiaslavschyny plans to gather 55,000-60,000 tons of grain crop harvest in this year, which is sufficient for providing the 5 pig-breeding complexes with forage.

As Ukrainian News has reported, the Agricultural Policy Ministry forecasts growth in the number of pig heads to 10 million heads by 2007. The pig livestock increased in July by 2.1% or 148,300 heads over June and it totaled 7,076,500 heads as of August 1.

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Zvarich: Principles of openness and competitiveness were violated during privatization of Krivorozhstal

News / 17 August 2005 | 17:25

The Justice Ministry has a legal support with regard to illegally privatized objects, to return state enterprises to the state, Justice Minister Roman Zvarych informed journalists during a press conference. He commented on discussions, existing around court rulings with regard to the Kryvorizhstal and the Nikopol Ferro Alloy Works.

Roman Zvarych underscored that the Justice Ministry considers that during privatization of those enterprises there was a severe violation of acting legislation, primarily of such principles as transparency, openness and competitiveness.

In particular, a sale-purchase agreement on the Kryvorizhstal was concluded not following 75 days since information was announced, but following 30 days, which made it impossible to create a competition around sale of the enterprise, the Justice Minister believes. He also said that during privatization of the Nikopol Ferro Alloy Works this norm was also violated and a number of other violations were made.

In particular, a control packet of shares 50 percent + 1 was divided into 25 percent and 25 percent + 1, which is inadmissible, Roman Zvarych underscored. Also, inadmissible restrictions were established with regard to natural persons, who would be entitled to purchase the enterprise: only those persons were allowed to participate in the tender who were engaged in similar matters in the course of three years.

The Justice Minister explained why the state expressed a distrust toward the previous panel of judges, who had to consider a case concerning the Nikopol Ferro Alloy Works. The main thing is that all judges examined exclusively cases about bankruptcy and they never considered cases about illegal privatization.

Roman Zvarych also emphasized that the state has to return to former investors the funds, which were spent by them. Due to this reason, in the Minister’s opinion, it is necessary to again display shares of those enterprises for sale.

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Boyko says PM Tymoshenko to blame for gas supply disputes with Russia

News / 17 August 2005 | 17:00

Yuriy Boyko, the leader of the Republican Party of Ukraine and former head of state oil and gas company Naftohaz Ukrayiny, has said that there are no grounds for problems with Russia’s Gazprom over gas supplies and blamed recent disputes on Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko.

Speaking during a studio interview on UT1’s In Focus programme, Boyko said, "The only reason for the conflict with Russia and the worsening situation with gas is the position of the prime minister who is taking a firm position towards Russia in order to pursue her personal business interests involving the corporation United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) and its debts to the Russian Defence Ministry."

Boyko said that UESU, a gas trading firm run by Tymoshenko in the 1990s, owed 408m dollars to the Russian Defence Ministry. He said that in February 2004, the Russian government held a special meeting to decide what to do about this debt.

Boyko also dismissed allegations by Oleksandr Turchynov, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine, that non-transparent contracts with intermediary companies for transit of Turkmen gas signed by Naftohaz under his leadership had cost the budget 1bn dollars.

"Speaking of [transit operators] Eural Trans Gas and RosUkrEnergo, their task was to deliver gas to Ukraine via Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia, and they fulfilled this task," he said. "We received the gas on time and it was the cheapest."

Boyko insisted that all mutual obligations between Ukraine and Russia were being fulfilled. "As regards Russia, the situation with the gas balance is completely transparent," he said.

Boyko said that the biggest threat to Ukraine’s gas supplies this winter comes not from Russia but from Turkmenistan. He said that Turkmen President Saparmyrat Nyyazow’s accusations in June that Ukraine was cheating on its barter payments for gas deliveries in the first half of 2005 should be a warning for "all society".

"We received gas from Turkmenistan and did not deliver any goods, and now it is necessary to settle the goods deliveries," he said. "Otherwise at the end of September, beginning of October there were will be more harsh statements from Turkmenistan and very tough negotiations on prices for next year."

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Yushchenko is threatened with impeachment

News / 17 August 2005 | 16:47

If President of Ukraine blocks out political reform starting from January 1, 2006, "it will be the serious violation against the Constitution of Ukraine," reckons Leonid Kravchuk the first President of Ukraine and now he is the deputy of Ukraine and the leader of civil forum "Unite Ukraine." According to him, impeachment may be announced to the current head of the state.

"In that case, Verkhovna Rada must announce presidential impeachment," explained Kravchuk in Vinnitsa during the meeting with its dwellers.

As a reminder the political reform is to start on January 1, 2006. The changes of the Constitution of Ukraine will stipulate for reduction of power commissions of President and strengthen of parliamentary and PM’s ones.

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Meeting on Iran’s gas export to Europe via Ukraine

News / 17 August 2005 | 16:20

Iran, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia and Russia may meet in September

Deputy Oil Minister for International Affairs Seyyed Mohammad Hadi Nezhadhoseynian said here Tuesday [16 August] hoped that the five-partite meeting of Iran, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia and Russia on export of gas from Iran to Europe via Ukraine will be held by September. He told IRNA that Russia’s approval of the project will expedite the process.

Stressing that the Europeans are in dire need of Iran’s gas, he added that guarantee for future supply of energy is of great importance to Europe and that they are both interested in and need to import gas from Iran.

"Given that China, India and Pakistan are among Iran’s gas clients and keen to bolster relations with the country, if other consumers of gas do not proceed in time they may face a shortage of gas available for export. Turkey is currently the only importer of gas from Iran and transfer of gas to Europe via this country is one of the options on the agenda.

Turkey’s recent reaction to the issue and its intention to purchase gas from Iran and sell it to Europe directly, is not acceptable to Iran, since another option would be to transfer it via Ukraine," he added.

Nezhadhoseynian noted that Turkey cannot insist on following such a procedure in order to become a member of European Union, since it is not supported by EU.

Concerning export of gas from Iran to Europe via Ukraine it should be said that a cooperation agreement has recently been inked to the effect between the two states, but that the volume of the gas to be transferred via this route has not been distinguished yet.

Ukraine has proposed two pipeline routes to Iran for transfer of gas: one is Iran-Armenia-Georgia-Russia-Ukraine-Europe and the other is Iran-Armenia-Georgia-Black Sea-Ukraine-Europe. The expenses of each of the two suggested routes have been assessed by Ukrainian sources at 10 billion dollars.   

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Kushnarev has been arrested in General Office of Public Prosecutor

News / 17 August 2005 | 16:08

General Office of Public Prosecutor detained the former governor of Kharkov region, Evgeny Kushnarev, on charges of exceeding official commission.

Today’s morning Evgeny Kushnarev arrived to GOPP for examination of materials concerning "separatism case." He considered that examination of 11 volumes would give a possibility to form a legal basis for verdict of "not guilty".

As a reminder, on July 23, 2005 General Office of Public Prosecutor accused Kushnarev of encroachment on territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine and instituted a criminal case.

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Donetsk city council is obstructed with garbage bags

News / 17 August 2005 | 15:32

In Donetsk, on Wednesday, activists of organization "We" brought the collected garbage to the building of the city council and put it under the windows of mayor’s cabinet.

According to participants of the action, in such a way they wanted to point out the problem, which bothers the citizens.

Members of "We" gathered about 20 garbage bags and stuck to each a photo of Minister of Internal Affairs, Yuri Lucenko, with a rude inscription. (In the Russian language a slang and rude word for policeman is garbage – ed.)

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