Government approves draft agreement with Israel on visa-free regime

News / 30 June 2010 | 16:30

The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers on June 30 approved a draft agreement with the Israeli government on the cancellation of the visa regime for individuals using citizen passports or official passports of Ukraine and Israel, Ukrainian First Deputy Foreign Minister Volodymyr Khandohiy has said.

He noted that the agreement would be signed soon and that the date of its signing was being agreed.

After the document is signed, it should be ratified by the parliaments of Ukraine and Israel. The agreement will enter into force three months after its ratification.

As reported earlier, the Israeli government has already approved the agreement on the visa-free regime with Ukraine.

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Ukraine, Sri Lanka sign bilateral documents

News / 30 June 2010 | 14:47

President Viktor Yanukovych held a private meeting with President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Opening the meeting President Yanukovych praised the arrival of President Rajapaksa with the official visit to Ukraine.

“I hope your visit will allow us to open a new page in relations between Ukraine and Sri Lanka. We are eager to offer you different ways of cooperation, above all, of course, the trade-economic,” said Viktor Yanukovych, adding that Sri Lankan market looks very promising to Ukraine.

In this context, President Yanukovych pointed to importance of joint Ukrainian-Sri Lankan business forum scheduled for today, also aimed at developing favorable conditions of cooperation between representatives of businesses and industries of the two countries.

From his part, the Sri Lankan President thanked the President of Ukraine for the invitation to visit Ukraine and such a beautiful city as Kyiv.

He also expressed confidence that his official visit to Ukraine will strengthen relations between the two states.

According to Mahinda Rajapaksa, sides are also to discuss developing relations between the peoples of Ukraine and Sri Lanka, particularly given their rich history and culture.

The Sri Lankan President also acknowledged that the scheduled Ukrainian-Sri Lankan business forum is very important for building closer ties between businessmen of Ukraine and Sri Lanka.

In the presence of President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych and President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa a number of Ukrainian-Sri Lankan intergovernmental documents, such as agreements on cooperation in tourism, military-technical cooperation and mutual protection of classified information were signed.

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Yanukovych stands for providing society with access to unbiased information

News / 30 June 2010 | 13:00

President Viktor Yanukovych stands for providing the Ukrainian society with the opportunity to obtain quality and unbiased information, he addressed the first meeting of the Public Humanitarian Council on Tuesday, according to UKRINFORM.

In recent years, said the head of state, our society has been often asking a question of how freedom of speech works in Ukraine. The president called the attempt to interfere in the activities of journalists “a real problem that arises in any society, not only in Ukraine”. He drew attention to the need to resolve this problem.

“It’s no secret that, formally media workers, journalists are free. In fact, we know that this is not true,” Yanukovych said, noting that representatives of the mass media largely depend on the owners of newspapers and television channels that dictate information policy and wage levels.

The president stressed that all citizens should be on equal footing, regardless of who they are, or what positions they occupy. “Each case should not be ignored, but even punished,” he said. Yanukovych also added that two weeks ago he ordered Prosecutor General’s Office to expose violations of civil rights and freedom of speech.

Yanukovych also emphasized that Ukraine needs to create an information-cultural system as quickly as possible, which fosters the national consolidation. According to him, a working group developed a draft concept on creating public television. “We tried to find a model for public television, which would be consistent with modern requirements,” he said. The head of state voiced confidence that the creation of public TV is as important as economic issues.

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Tymoshenko has no doubts in BYuT’s political future

News / 30 June 2010 | 10:58

Yulia Tymoshenko is calling on heads of regional branches of Batkivshchyna to form a professional talent pool that will be capable of assuming responsible government positions once the party returns to power.

“I want for the entire team to pinpoint people that our country can later rely on,” Yulia Tymoshenko said today during a Batkivshchyna conference in Kharkiv.

According to Yulia Tymoshenko, after the elections the regional party leaders should assume appropriate positions in government. “After a victory, the head of a raion party branch, who took on the responsibility, should become the head of the raion state administration, and if the leader of an oblast party branch doesn’t go to Kyiv to run a ministry, then he should become the head of the oblast state administration,” she explained.

“If we build a power vertical of ministers and law enforcement, then we are required to train people that we later will not be ashamed of in these posts,” said Yulia Tymoshenko.

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Another BYuT member joins ruling coalition

News / 29 June 2010 | 16:29

Another member of the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko faction has joined the coalition.

Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn announced at the parliament’s meeting on Tuesday that BYT member Arnold Radovets joined the Stability and Reforms coalition.

The Stability and Reform coalition now has 259 deputies.

On March 11, 2010, the Verkhovna Rada formed the Stability and Reforms coalition. The coalition was formed by factions of the Regions Party, the Bloc of Lytvyn, the Communist Party of Ukraine, and six MPs from the Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defence Bloc, six from the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko and four MPs not belonging to any faction. Then the coalition numbered 235. Later, more members of the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko faction and the Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense joined the coalition.

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Russia-Ukraine trade reaching pre-crisis levels – Putin

News / 29 June 2010 | 14:44

Russian-Ukrainian trade doubled in the first four months of the current year and will soon reach pre-crisis levels, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Monday.

“This is the first sign of the drastically improving quality of our relations,” he told his Ukrainian counterpart Mykola Azarov, adding it was also a sign that the two countries were emerging from the economic crisis.

“Last year our trade collapsed from $40 billion to $22 billion, but in the first four months of this year it doubled,” Putin said, RIA Novosti reported.

Azarov said the growing bilateral trade was a result of the normalization of bilateral relations, especially in the political sphere, as well as efforts to give Russian-Ukrainian cooperation a strategic quality.

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The Constitution of Ukraine passed the test of time, but needs some changes

News / 29 June 2010 | 12:52

The Constitution of Ukraine has passed the test of time, but at the same time it needs changes amid dynamic historical conditions,  President Viktor Yanukovych addressed Ukrainians on the Constitution Day on Monday.

On June 28, 1996 the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Constitution that fixed the rights and freedoms of citizens, social-political and state structure, the basic principles of interaction between branches of government, regulatory framework of essential public relations.

“The Basic Law of the state is a core of the legal system, the foundation on which all legislation is based, as well as the process of state-legal reforms, democratic development of the country. This is the foundation of stability in society,” the head of state said, presidential press office reported.

He reminded that Ukraine has a centuries-old constitutional tradition. Its origin goes back to the Russkaya Pravda of Prince Yaroslav the Wise and Hetman Philip Orlyk’s Constitution, which, according to historians, is the first European constitutional act in the modern sense, and which turned 300 years old.

These documents became the historical basis for the adoption of the Declaration on State Sovereignty, which will mark the twentieth anniversary this year, and the Act of Independence of Ukraine of August 24, 1991.

The president noted that adopted in 1996, the Constitution of Ukraine in its key provisions have passed the test of time. As referred to the definition of human rights and freedoms, it is considered to be one of the most progressive in the world. “At the same time, the experience of nation-building during the years that have elapsed since the adoption of the Basic Law, testified that the Constitution in modern dynamic historical realities needs some changes,” he said.

According to him, some provisions of the Constitution, in particular, those hastily adopted in late 2004, led to imbalance of power.

Yanukovych stressed that the process of improving the Constitution should not turn into a political action. This is a serious change in social relations, which must be based on the will of the people, meet modern realities and determine the progress of the state as a whole. “The constitutional amendments must be based on the principle of social consensus, consolidation of political and social forces around the idea of developing the country, eliminating the sources of tension in the country,” the Ukrainian president said.

He also called on all Ukrainian society to consolidate for the sake of “unconditional implementation of the provisions of the Basic Law, guaranteeing the rights and freedoms of every person and citizen in our country.”

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Tymoshenko: Tihipko-Brodsky Tax Code is a disaster for the country

News / 29 June 2010 | 11:02

The new version of the Tax Code, written by Vice Prime Minister Serhiy Tihipko and the head of the State Committee for Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship Mykhailo Brodsky, aims to clampdown on small and medium business, says Yulia Tymoshenko.

“This Tax Code was developed by the ‘creative group’ headed by Tihipko and Brodsky. These are the creative folks, the ‘strong politicians’ and ‘new faces’ that produced this project, which is essentially a disaster for the country,” Yulia Tymoshenko said today during a meeting with representatives of business circles in the Kyiv region, according to BYuT press office.

In particular, Tymoshenko stressed that taxation of personal deposits proposed by the ruling government in its draft Tax Code is unacceptable.

“If as proposed in this Tax Code they start taxing the deposits citizens hold in banks, then the entire country will have to go as far away elsewhere because the one thing the people have left is to put their money into a savings account and earn at least some interest,” Yulia Tymoshenko said today while appearing as a guest on a talk show on the Inter channel.

In her opinion, by introducing a tax on personal bank deposits, the ruling government wants to transfer the burden onto ordinary citizens. “The essence of the current government is to transfer the burden from big corporations to small and medium business and ordinary citizens of Ukraine. Under the new Tax Code only large corporations will be free from taxation and gain preferences from the government,” believes Yulia Tymoshenko.

According to the draft Tax Code developed by the government, a 5% tax on deposits would be introduced in 2013.

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