Published in Kyiv Post / Interfax

Ukrainian Prime-Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has said she is pleased by the results of her visit to Japan.

"Over the 17 years of [Ukraine's] independence, none of Ukraine's prime ministers has visited Japan. The major topic which we discussed was the modernization and renovation of Ukraine, of all its engineering systems, utilities networks, power grids with the assistance of Japan, which is the world's No. 1 in all technologies," she said on 1+1 on March 29.

Read More...

Japan is a reliable partner to Ukraine for bilateral economic cooperation, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko stated during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso in Tokyo.

Tymoshenko noted that the Ukrainian government highly values its cooperation with Japan. She expressed thanks on behalf of the government for this bilateral cooperation, which allows for the implementation of joint projects in many fields.

“Ukraine considers Japan to be a reliable partner for implementation of projects in many directions, dealing with the reconstruction and modernization of all spheres,” Tymoshenko noted.

Aso noted that Japan considers Ukraine to be an important country, especially due to its geographic location.

He welcomed the Ukrainian government’s efforts during the switch to a market economy, and emphasized that the joint statement between the prime ministers of Ukraine and Japan solidifies a course for future cooperation between the two countries.

Published in Kyiv Post

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has called on the Japanese corporations to deepen the co-operation with Ukraine in the frames of the Kyoto Protocol, the public relations department of the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers said.

Tymoshenko said that Ukraine is interested in cooperation with Japan as this country has powerful investment resources and leading intellectual technologies.

She said that several important steps have been made in this direction, in particular, the parties have determined the priorities of co-operation, joint Ukrainian-Japanese groups have been created, and framework documents have been signed.

Read More...

Full text of the speech of Yulia Tymoshenko at the International Conference on Modernization of Gas Transport System of Ukraine in Brussels

Dear ladies and gentlemen!

First of all, I want to express gratitude to all organizers of today’s event for their hospitality, constructive mood and, undoubtedly, for the new dialog triggered with Ukraine in the direction of modernization and reconstruction of gas transport system. Such readiness of European partners to cooperate with Ukraine is of exceptional significance for us nowadays. I consider in the crisis period every country is planning to come out stronger after these challenges, after these incredible tests. Ukraine is not an exception and today, after 17 years of Ukraine’s independence, we are trying to modernize, reconstruct the whole energy sector of Ukraine. We are working over completion of huge hydro-accumulating facilities, building new blocks of nuclear power stations, we are into reconstruction and modernization of heat-accumulating capacities, our heat and water supply system, necessary for Ukrainian citizens.

Read More...

Published in Inform issue #106
See the full issue here.

President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko will together visit the EU conference on modernising Ukraine’s pipeline infrastructure on 23 March in Brussels. “Ukraine’s leaders will present a consolidated position on what is a topic of national importance,” said Oleksandr Turchynov, First Deputy Prime Minister.

The objective of the conference, hosted jointly by the European Commission and Ukrainian government, is to help Ukraine maintain its capability as a main gas transit country for EU consumers, and to foster reforms for both domestic gas supplies and international transit. The conference will bring together EU and government officials from Ukraine and other countries, as well as international financial institutions and the private sector.

Read More...

The leadership of the EU is in support of Ukraine’s continued cooperation with the IMF, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said during a briefing today in Brussels.

According to the prime minister, she came to this conclusion today following meetings with Secretary General of the Council of the European Union and High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana, during which the main issue was Ukraine’s cooperation with the IMF.

“I’m sure that all the leaders of the EU support cooperation between the IMF and Ukraine and doing everything they can for this cooperation to continue and for Ukraine to receive the second tranche of the loan,” Tymoshenko said.

She expects cooperation with the IMF to resume in the nearest weeks.

Read More...

Published in New Europe

Ukrainian Vice Premier Hryhoriy Nemyria urged the European Union Thursday to use some "creative thinking" to extend emergency loans to crisis-hit countries -- such as his -- bordering the EU.

Stressing that 30 percent of the Ukrainian banking system belongs to western European banks, he said this creates "a de facto interdependence that requires creative thinking and a willingness ... to use the instruments and the resources that are currently available for (EU members) Hungary, Lavia," for their non-EU neighbours, he told a conference in Brussels.

Read More...

Published by Interfax

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko will pay a working visit to Brussels today.

She is planning to meet with Secretary General of the EU Council, High Commissioner for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana.

Tymoshenko will also take part in the summit of the European People's Party for holding bilateral meetings with Prime Minister of Belgium Herman Van Rompuy, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Luxembourg Jean-Claude Juncker, and other European countries' leaders.

The parties will discuss issues involved in cooperation between Ukraine and the European Union, including strengthening of European energy security, creation of a free trade zone, and conclusion of an association agreement between Ukraine and the EU.

Government Press Office

Yulia Tymoshenko, the Prime Minister of Ukraine, declares she will sign the program of cooperation with the IMF on giving the following tranche of the loan after final adjustments to this document are to be done. She announced today during a briefing in Kharkiv.

According to Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine and the International Monetary Fund are working over adjustment of cooperation program on rendering the tranche of the Stand-By loan to Ukraine. 

Read More...

Published in the Kyiv Post

The Cabinet of Ministers has halved the salaries of the prime minister, the deputy prime ministers, and ministers from April 1, 2009, to January 1, 2010.

The press service of the Cabinet of Ministers announced this in a statement.

The relevant resolution, which the Cabinet of Ministers adopted at a meeting in Wednesday, was prompted by the global financial crisis.

Read More...

Published in Kyiv Post

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko intends to pay official working visits to Belgium on March 19 and Japan from March 25 to 26

Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Hryhoriy Nemyria announced this at a news briefing.

According to Nemyria, bilateral and multilateral financial cooperation will be discussed during the visits.

Read More...

Published in Kyiv Post

Ukraine's government has approved decisions on cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and getting the second tranche of the IMF's stand-by credit to the country, Vice-Premier Hryhoriy Nemyria has said.

"I would like to note that due to constructive cooperation between all of the components of the process today at a meeting of the government, we took an agreed decision, which we think will allow us in the near future to achieve practical results regarding the return of the IMF mission, and after some time, [allow the IMF] to make a decision to provide the second tranche of the loan," he said at a briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday.

Read More...

Published in Inform issue #105
See the full issue here.

Naftohaz Ukrainy has confirmed that it has paid off its debts to Gazprom, so eliminating the prospect of a fresh gas dispute between Ukraine and Russia. Naftohaz’s announcement followed a tumultuous week for the state-run gas company, one in which heavily armed masked SBU (State Security Service) officers stormed its offices and those of its pipeline subsidiary Ukratransgaz.

According to SBU spokesperson Marian Ostapenko, the heavy-handed tactics were part of “an investigation within the framework of a criminal case over abuses in the gas sector.” At the heart of the investigation was the ownership of 11 billion cubic metres of gas which Ukraine purchased at a discount from Gazprom. The gas is estimated to be worth nearly $2 billion.

Several days prior to the 4 March raid on the Naftohaz building, the SBU accused Ukraine’s gas company of stealing 6.3 billion cubic metres of natural gas worth nearly $900 million and detained the deputy head of its customs branch, Taras Shepitko. Among items seized during the raid on 4 March were documents related to the 11 billion cubic metres of gas, which is being claimed by RosUkrEnergo, the shady intermediary company that was removed from the 2009 contract.

Read More...

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko isn’t announcing her intentions to run in the presidential elections given that debates continue over possible changes to the Constitution, she said during an interview in the French newspaper “La Croix.”

“The election campaign hasn’t begun yet. We’re debating possible amendments to the Constitution that will either preserve the parliamentary republic model or move us towards a presidential system. That’s why I don’t want to make statements regarding my participation,” Tymoshenko said.

“The economic crisis is our priority today. All our efforts are directed at battling it. We’re working day and night on this and will think about the presidential elections a bit later,” she emphasized.

Read More...

Published in Kyiv Post

France is ready to help Ukraine cover the planned deficit of the national budget, the Cabinet of Ministers' press service reported.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko says France is ready to provide financial aid to Ukraine after the program on its cooperation with the International Monetary Fund is signed.

In Tymoshenko's words, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso sent a letter confirming that all the key member-countries of the European Union are ready for cooperation with Ukraine after the program is signed.

Read More...

Published in UNIAN

The Heads of Governments of Ukraine and France have agreed to elaborate a road map of bilateral cooperation for 2010-2011, according to Office of mass media relations of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Secretariat. Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Hryhoriy Nemyria announced to journalists, such an agreement had been reached in the course of meeting of Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko with Prime Minister of the French Republic François Fillon, held in the frameworks of an official visit of the Head of Ukrainian Government to France yesterday.

According to Hryhoriy Nemyria, prime ministers of the two states have come to a decision such road map is to define lines of cooperation and to contain the list of powerful joint investment projects. The Vice Premier stressed François Fillon had accepted with pleasure an invitation of Yulia Tymoshenko to visit Ukraine. It was agreed the visit is due in autumn of the current year so that the governments of the two states will sign a document on deepening of bilateral cooperation.

Read More...

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko asked France for help Wednesday in financing her country's gaping budget and reviving Ukraine's nuclear energy sector to make it less reliant on Russian natural gas.

She also sought to assure European gas consumers that "there will be no more conflicts" between Russia and Ukraine over gas supplies crossing her country. Price disputes between the two neighbors have led to gas cutoffs in many European countries in the past, and new worries surfaced after a raid on Ukraine's main natural gas company on Wednesday.

"Ukraine was and remains a reliable gas partner for Europe," Tymoshenko told reporters after meeting French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Tymoshenko's trip to Paris appeared aimed at boosting her domestic political interests and shoring up Ukraine's reputation in Western Europe amid new signs of fracture between herself and President Viktor Yushchenko. Ukraine's political turmoil and the gas conflict have turned away investors, and Ukraine has been particularly hard hit by the economic crisis.

Read More...

Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko has set off to France with a one-day working visit.

In the course of the visit the Head of Ukrainian Government will hold a meeting with President of the French Republic Nicolas Sarkozy and Prime Minister of France François Fillon.

Also the visit’s agenda includes a meeting with Minister of Economics, Industry and Employment Christine Lagarde.

Sources: FT, Kyiv Post, Bloomberg and Euronews

Armed guards from Ukraine’s State Security Service (SBU) on Wednesday raided the headquarters of state natural gas company Naftogaz. Scuffles broke out as officers entered the building in Kyiv searching for original copies of a new gas contract between Russia and Ukraine.

An SBU official was quoted as saying that the raid was part of an investigation into the illegal transfer of natural gas ownership into the hands of the state company.

Read More...

Published in The Moscow Times
By Yulia Tymoshenko

Since World War II's end, France has consistently risen to the challenge of restructuring Europe in times of crisis. In doing so, France became the catalyst not only for building European unity but also for creating the prosperity that marked Europe's post-war decades -- a prosperity now under threat because of the global financial and economic crisis. If we are to see a stronger Europe emerge from today's challenges, visionary French leadership is needed again.

The first moment when decisive French leadership began to unify Europe came when former French Foreign Minister Robert Schumann and former German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer created the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951 to prevent another European war, among other things. By rooting the then-West Germany in the political, economic and social fabric of the West, it also heralded the start of Germany's rebirth and economic miracle.

Read More...

Published in the Kyiv Post

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has said she is confident that Ukraine will get the second tranche from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"Ukraine will definitely receive the second tranche from the IMF," the government's press service quoted her as saying on Monday.

The IMF suspended payments on a $16.4 billion loan because Ukraine failed to rein in spending and adopt a balanced budget. The nation received the first tranche of $4.5 billion. The second one will be worth about $1.8 billion and will help stabilize the hryvnia, which has lost nearly 50 percent in value from its summer high of Hr 4.6/$.

Tymoshenko also said that a meeting between President Viktor Yuschenko, Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, as well as the leadership of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and the Finance Ministry, concerning Ukraine's cooperation with the IMF, was constructive.

"The document was considered in a constructive way, and there are currently no obstacles for the president, the premier and the acting heads of the NBU and the finance ministry to sign the letter with the [country's] agreed position on its cooperation with the IMF and send it to the IMF," she said.