Published in Kyiv Post

The Central Election Commission has registered Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko as a presidential candidate.

The decision to register Tymoshenko as the candidate was supported unanimously by 15 members of the Central Election Commission present at the meeting.

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Published in Kyiv Post

Ukraine will gain membership of the European Union, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has said in her election program entitled “Ukraine Will Win. Ukraine is You.”

“I believe that we can reach the level of European standards in such issues as democracy, human rights, living conditions, and political culture. After we build Europe in Ukraine, Ukraine will become a member of the European Union,” reads the document.

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Published in Inform issue #129
See the full issue here.

Two events last week saw Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko put forward as a candidate for the presidential elections to be held on 17 January 2010. The first on 22 October took place at a meeting of the prime minister with civil society organisations, dubbed the All-Ukrainian People’s Congress, at Kyiv’s October Palace. The second was on the Maidan (Independence Square) two days later when a congress of her Batkivschyna party took place (the largest party within the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT)). To thundering applause and cheers, the congress voted overwhelmingly to promote Ms Tymoshenko as its presidential candidate.

The congress was followed by a rock concert with well known Ukrainian rock stars playing – whose faces adorn billboards throughout Kyiv with the distinctive BYuT red heart, showing their support for her presidential candidacy.

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Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has today been nominated by her party to compete in the presidential elections on 17 January 2010.

First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov declared the party's unanomous decision to thousands of cheering supporters in Independence Square, Kyiv.

Published in Inform issue #128
See the full issue here.

This week marks the start of official campaigning for the presidential elections. To fortify herself and draw moral strength for the months of campaigning ahead, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko took time out on Friday for a private meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican.
 
According to a government press statement, "The tête-à-tête meeting between the premier and the pope took place in the papal personal library and lasted for half an hour."

Talking about her visit to the Vatican, Ms Tymoshenko said, “It is very important for me to hold all necessary discussions about cooperation between the government in Ukraine and the Council of Churches, and about what steps we have been making to help churches fulfil their mission. I think it is an important discussion, because, in my opinion, only from spiritual revival can the country's economic revival begin."

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The first annual international "Economic Development of Ukraine" forum will be held in the Knight Conference Center of the internationally-acclaimed Newseum on 15 October 2009. The event will focus on Ukraine's economic recovery in the face of the recent global liquidity crisis.  In attendance will be a Ukrainian delegation, including Vice Prime Minister for European Integration Hryhoriy Nemyria and Minister of Economy Bohdan Danylyshyn.  The Forum's main event will be a live video link between the Newseum and the World Bank studio in Kyiv, featuring the Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko and a panel of experts from the World Bank, IMF and EBRD.

For more information please visit the event website here.

Published in Inform issue #127
See the full issue here.

Ukraine has again paid its monthly gas bill to Gazprom in full and on time. However, shortly after the $400 million September bill was paid, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko reaffirmed plans to cut natural gas imports in 2010.

At a government meeting the premier admitted that payment of the bill for 2 billion cubic metres of gas consumed in September was “not easy” and that Naftohaz “worked for a month to scrape together every single penny, every single hryvnia” to make the payment. Despite this, the government and Naftohaz officials are confident that Ukraine will meet its future commitments.

During the spring and summer months Naftohaz put sufficient volumes of gas into storage to avoid any re-run of last January’s gas crisis, which caused disruption of supply to some European states. To-date the state-run company has pumped some 26 billion cubic metres of gas into its network of vast underground storage facilities. This is adequate to cover the winter period and ensure the smooth flow of gas to Europe. Currently, some 80 percent of Russia’s gas exports to the EU transit through Ukraine.

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Published in Kyiv Post

Deputy Prime Minister for International Affairs and European Integration Hryhorii Nemyria has said the current financial and economic crisis in Ukraine has passed its peak.Nemyria's press service announced this in a statement.

"The most difficult time for Ukraine is behind us," Nemyria said while delivering a report on the state of the Ukrainian economy at a seminar on the theme "Crisis, Recovery, and Structural Reform in Emerging Europe and Central Asia," which was organized as part of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Turkey.

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