06/24/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - The Venice Commission approved the changes to the Constitution of Ukraine

The Venice Commission approved the changes to the Constitution of Ukraine

06.24.2015 Daily Highlights by the Digests & Analytics Ukraine News Agency

Topics from Media and Social Networks

• The Venice Commission approved the changes to the Constitution of Ukraine.
• The EU officials deny their pressure on Ukraine’s authorities to grant a special status to the Donbass.
• Protests are spreading in Armenia.
• "Roshen" entered the Polish market.

Key Events in Ukraine

• President Poroshenko created an organizing committee for the celebration of the Independence Day, headed by Prime Minister Yatsenyuk and Head of the President Administration Lozhkin.
• The Venice Commission generally approved the draft amendments to the Constitution submitted by Ukraine, with a few additions.
• Prime Minister Yatsenyuk offered to tie the salary  of the state enterprises managers to their enterprises profits.
• The government decided to resubordinate the state fiscal service to the Ministry of Finance. Finance Minister Yaresko announced the intention to reduce the number of the service staff by half.
• The Cabinet asks the Coalition Council in the Verkhovna Rada to agree on a dismissal of the Environment Minister Shevchenko, appointed under the quota of the "Batkivshchina" party, after he refused to resign himself.
• The Government allowed the mobilization of transport of private companies and individuals for the army needs during the special period with compensation for the losses paid from the budget  in the event of the vehicle damage.
• Prime Minister Yatsenyuk offered to appoint the management of foreign companies for the most corrupt customs offices and said that this experience was quite successful in several European countries.
• The NBU is increasing the official hryvnia exchange rate for the second day in a row: 21.18 UAH/USD (0.35 UAH), 23.75 UAH/EUR (-0,37 UAH), 3.92 UAH/RUR 10 (-0.05UAH) .

Ukraine at War

• Despite a slight decrease in the number of attacks, the situation in the conflict zone in the Donbass remains tense. Apart from the surroundings of ​​Donetsk, militants attacked Shyrokino and other settlements in the direction of Mariupol again . Schastya and Stanitsa Luhanska are still under the fire. During the previous day, according to the official data, four Ukrainian soldiers were wounded.
  Defense Minister Poltorak stated that Ukrainian military are only returning fire. The Ukrainian Army should be ready to the continuation of the Russian aggression at any time.

Ukraine and the World

• Russia was not invited to the G7 Summit which will be held in Japan in May 2016.
• The results of the survey, conducted by the TNS on request of the World Policy Institute in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Great Britain and Poland, showed that the overwhelming majority of Europeans consider Ukraine worthy of the EU membership. According to the respondents, the main obstacles in its way to European integration are the oligarchs and corruption; Russia's position is not worth paying attention to.
• The official EU diplomacy denied the reports of the Ukrainian media about alleged pressure on the Ukrainian authorities to provide a special status to the Donbass and confirmed that the position of Europe in relation to the Minsk Agreement remains unchanged; a cease-fire should become the beginning of this process.
• In Brussels, opened the meeting of the defense ministers of the NATO members-countries, the main topic of which is the countermeasures to the threat from the Russian side. The Ukrainian delegation will be represented by Minister of Defence Poltorak. NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg blamed Russia of the aggression and announced about the measures aimed at strengthening of the Alliance's collective defense in the face of new challenges.
• Russian President Putin said that in response to the EU actions, he signed a decree on the ban extension on imports of certain groups of Western goods to the end of June 2016.
• Russia is not ready to give Ukraine a discount for the  natural gas at the previous levels because of the sharp fall in oil prices on world markets, to which the natural gas prices are tied. According to President Putin, the price must not be lower than the one used for sales to the neighboring countries such as Poland. The Energy Minister stated that Ukraine should independently approach the "Gazprom" to obtain the discount.
• Protests are spreading in Armenia, demonstrations against the increase in tariffs already took place in five cities across the country, demonstrators have now political demands to the country's leadership.
• The financial crisis in Greece continues, the creditors rejected the country government's proposal on the restructuring.

The Trends

• Because of the non-transparent policies pursued by the State Aviation Service, and infringement of the rights of foreign air carriers in favor of the UIA, the low cost airlines are  not in a hurry to enter the Ukrainian market.
• Experts believe that the introduction by the government of an emergency administration of the electronic VAT invoices will lead to leaching of working capital of enterprises and the emergence of corruption schemes related to plundering of the taxpayers' money from these accounts. Instead, they advise the tax authorities to intensify the fight against the conversion centers, and government should create a transparent business environment that would encourage its development and increase the budget revenues with the business growth.
• According to experts, the mobilization of individual and private transport vehicles during the special period will increase the pressure on business and will lead to the abuse of office by the  government when it attempts to apply the rules of martial law during the peacetime.