Ukraine counts on EU inspection of its poultry enterprises

News / 23 February 2009 | 17:30

Ukraine hopes for inspection of its poultry enterprises by European specialists in the current year with the aim of possible granting a right for poultry meat exports to European Union countries.

“We want that in the current year our poultry keeping enterprises are inspected”, Chairman of the State Veterinary Medicine Committee Petro Verbytsky said, Ukrinform reported.

According to him, the State Veterinary Medicine Committee conducts relevant negotiations with its European counterparts.

“If everything goes well, in 2010 we will actually export poultry meat. We are competitive by a price”, he said.

Presently, Ukraine has a right to supply to the EU live horses, fish, powdered eggs and honey.

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Romania to help Ukraine in its preparations to join NATO

News / 23 February 2009 | 16:40

Romania will provide assistance to Ukraine in its preparations for NATO membership, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Vasyl Kyrylych said at a briefing in Kyiv on Monday, Interfax-Ukraine reported.

He said that Ukrainian First Deputy Foreign Minister Volodymyr Khandohiy visited Romania on February 16-17. During the visit, Khandohiy held talks with his Romanian counterpart regarding Ukraine’s integration with NATO, Kyrylych said.

“Romania has expressed its absolute readiness to provide examples of a NATO annual national program and render its methodical and practical assistance to Ukraine in preparing for its integration with NATO,” Kyrylych said.

He also pointed to Romania’s readiness to help Ukraine “in taking and implementing a number of measures needed for Ukraine’s active advancement into NATO.”

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Ukraine-EU Cooperation Committee meeting held in Kyiv

News / 23 February 2009 | 15:50

Today the twenty eighth sitting of Ukrainian part of Ukraine-EU Cooperation Committee was held, under the chairmanship of Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Hryhoriy Nemyria, Government portal reported.

A peculiar attention was paid to the issues joined to the process of preparing to an International investment conference on modernization of gas transport system of Ukraine, slated for spring of the current year in Brussels, the results of consultations into a new practical instrument to replace Ukraine-EU Action Plan and issues tied with the process of joining of United Energy Systems of Ukraine to the European Union for the Coordination of Transmission of Electricity (UCTE).

The topic of associated membership of Ukraine in the EU Seventh Framework Program for Research and Technological Development has been also tackled, apart from others.

On the outcomes of the meeting a protocol decision of the sitting of Ukrainian part of Ukraine-EU Cooperation Committee was approved.

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Ukraine’s Defense Minister hopes NATO’s new strategic concept to keep organization’s openness principle

News / 23 February 2009 | 15:00

The Ukrainian party hopes that NATO’s new strategic concept, which is supposed to be adopted during NATO’s jubilee summit in spring 2009, will preserve a principle of openness of the organization and the possibility for democratic states to join the Alliance, Ukraine’s Minister of Defense Yuriy Yekhanurov said this in Krakow (Poland) at the meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Commission, UKRINFORM.

Yekhanurov stressed that NATO’s open-door policy and readiness of the organization for enlargement helps form the common responsibility for building of a security system and its support. He noted that from the point of view of Ukraine, NATO remains the most influential security organization on the Euro-Atlantic space.

“We are meeting today for the first time after the December Foreign Ministerial and have a chance to look at the practical routes that may allow Ukraine to fulfill its Euro-Atlantic aspirations. We fully realize that this task will bring additional responsibility to Ukraine for a greater scope of work to be additionally performed,” the minister underscored.

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IMF did not refuse Ukraine in credit – NBU Council Chairman

News / 23 February 2009 | 14:10

The International Monetary Fund Mission has not refused Ukraine in granting next tranche of the credit, it has only “taken an interval” so that the Ukrainian power adopted amendments to the State Budget 2009, National Bank Council Chairman Petro Poroshenko stated on air at the ICTV channel, Ukrinform reported.

He also noted that a sharp growth of the dollar rate in Ukraine is observed only during the week-ends, when the NBU does not enter the Interbank, having added at the same time that “there will never be 7.5 UAH/USD rate. For today the rate of 7.5 UAH/USD is not a weighted rate”.

Poroshenko explained that presently, a sharp devaluation of the national currency took place all over Eastern Europe, and this “process is absolutely natural”, and it is caused by the fact that “by empty promises the people are taught to consume unearned things, not produced by own Ukrainian industry.”

“The Ukrainian food industry and agriculture are able to feed Ukraine… A key slogan under the crisis conditions should be “Buy the Ukrainian!”, he said having added that it is support of the Ukrainian workplaces, ensuring tax revenues to the Ukrainian budget and minimization of consequences, including social, of the world crisis in the Ukrainian economy.

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Tymoshenko congratulates Ukrainian men on Motherland Defender Day

News / 23 February 2009 | 13:20

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko congratulated Ukrainian men on Motherland Defender Day and promised the government would ensure the country’s national defense capacity, Interfax-Ukraine reported.

“This day, everybody congratulates men on a holiday of courageous people, who are ready to sacrifice their knowledge, experience, and even their lives defending their motherland, as well as those who defended their state and who will do this in the future,” reads the premier’s letter of congratulation posted on the government’s official Web site on Monday.

Tymoshenko said the amount of funds allocated to the military sector this year was higher than in previous years.

“The government will continue to take measures needed to ensure the defense capacity of Ukraine’s national security and meet the country’s social commitments to its motherland defenders,” she said.

Tymoshenko said that in contrast to certain “artificial and far-fetched holidays,” Motherland Defender Day is an “absolutely real one.”

The premier wished Ukrainian men good health, prosperity, and achievements in their service for the sake of Ukraine.

“It also seems to me that the February 23 holiday exists for everybody to remember that [International Women’s Day] falls on March 8, in exactly two weeks,” she said.

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NATO discusses ways to keep door open to Ukraine

News / 23 February 2009 | 11:40

NATO defense ministers sought Friday to find ways to keep the door open to Ukraine’s membership, despite opposition from Russia over the alliance’s perceived encroachment into what Moscow considers its historical sphere of influence, AP reported. Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said NATO would stick by its commitment to help Ukraine undertake “comprehensive reforms” in its defense and security structures and indicated the alliance was still considering ways to let Ukraine join. Before a closed-door meeting with Ukrainian Defense Minister Yury Yekhanurov and ministers from the alliance`s 26 members, de Hoop Scheffer said NATO officials were considering “ways in which the alliance can continue to support its preparations for NATO membership” for Ukraine. At a summit in Romania last year, NATO leaders decided to offer Ukraine and Georgia a so-called “membership action plan” to prepare them to become members. But faced with opposition from Russia — and in the wake of the Russian-Georgian war in August — NATO has since backed away from establishing a plan for the two former Soviet nations. However, NATO has offered to step up military and political cooperation to help them achieve their goal of eventual membership. Before the meeting, Germany`s defense minister expressed his skepticism that Ukraine and Georgia were ready. “At the moment I don`t see the conditions for, for example, launching the membership action plan” for Ukraine and Georgia, Franz Josef Jung said. The ministers also took up the issue of reforming the alliance, which has faced criticism that it could be losing its relevance in a world vastly different from the post-World War II and Cold War reality that served as the background to its birth 60 years ago. To keep it relevant, de Hoop Scheffer has been calling for a new “strategic concept” that would help NATO face 21st century dangers like terrorism, climate change and cyber attacks. A day before the talks on Georgia and Ukraine, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates addressed other issues at the core of recent tensions between Washington and Moscow — and the Obama administration`s attempts to improve ties as it seeks greater Russian support for its mission in Afghanistan. Gates played down Kyrgyzstan`s decision to evict the U.S. from the strategic Manas air base it depends on to supply troops in Afghanistan, a decision Washington believes Moscow has orchestrated. Gates said the U.S. would be willing to pay higher rent — within limits — but said the base was ultimately replaceable. However, he also said he was skeptical of Russia`s claims to have played no role in Kyrgyzstan`s decision. Gates also said the Obama administration needed more time to decide whether to go ahead with the previous administration`s plans to build missile defense installations in the Czech Republic and Poland — a program that soured relations with Russia. AP via International Herald Tribune

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Yushchenko took a day off to celebrate birthday

News / 23 February 2009 | 12:30

President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko took one day off to celebrate his birthday with the family. Press secretary of the president Iryna Vannikova told ForUm.

Yushchenko is staying in the state residence “Sinegora” in Ivano-Frankivsk region. On Tuesday he is going back to work.

Today Yushchenko is 55 years old.

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