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Focus on Ukraine, October 5-11, 2009

The Party of Regions faction approved at its meeting the decision to unblock the work of the parliament on Tuesday, October 6. This will happen on condition that the party’s bill on raising social standards will be first on the agenda for discussion.

VR Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn kept his promise that members of parliament would not be paid for those days that the sessions of parliament were blockaded. The average monthly salary of an MP is UAH 14,000. In September the MPs received UAH 5,000 for two weeks of work. In this way the parliament saved more than UAH 2 million in national budget expenditures.

The government plans to raise teachers’ salaries by 22.5% starting January 1, 2010 and will raise them by 10% the following year.

The Verkhovna Rada is back to work. Its members adopted the bill on raising social standards, which MP of the Lytvyn Bloc Oleh Zarubinskiy submitted to the parliament for consideration.

As of November 1 the minimum wage will be UAH 774 per month and will be raised to UAH 869 per month as of January 1, 2010. Today, the monthly minimum wage is UAH 669.

The subsistence level will be raised from UAH 626 to UAH 701 starting November 1 and next year will be raised to UAH 825. The bill should be considered in full within 7 days.  

The YTB faction voted against raising social standards. Three members of the faction voted in favor.The majority of YTB members believe the bill will not be adopted due to insufficient funds.

Parliamentarians voted against the resolution of VR Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn in which he proposed to unblock the work of the parliament.

VR deputy and former head of the Crimean branch of the Party of Regions Vasyl Kyselyov is demanding that the party’s leader Viktor Yanukovych be replaced. He says the party is losing its leading positions over all other parties due to Yanukovych’s policy and democratic principles are being sidelined.

On September 15 the presidium of the Party of Regions political council expelled Kyselyov from the party.

Ex-minister of finance Viktor Pynzenyk said during a meeting with representative of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that Ukraine’s economy will see a decline of 15-16%.

Pynzenyk said national budget deficit could exceed 33% of GDP this year and may be 15% of GDP in 2010.

As a reminder, the government calculated a deficit of UAH 46.7 billion in the national budget for 2010, which is 3.97% of GDP.

The Verkhovna Rada heard out the government report on the execution of the budget in the first half of the year. The Accounting Chamber of Ukraine harshly criticized the Cabinet of Ministers. Head of the ACU Valentyna Symonenko said the government failed to slow down the deep recession, which as of late has picked up speed. Moreover, none of the points in the anti-crisis program has been fulfilled and the country’s GDP and industrial output have drastically fallen.

The leaders of foreign policy departments of Ukraine and Russia held inter-state talks in Kharkiv. Volodymyr Khandohiy and Sergei Lavrov were at the center of attention. They discussed finalizing the legal demarcation of the two country’s borders, economic cooperation and possible easing of customs regulations for citizens living on both sides of the borders between the two countries.    

The Ukrainian National Party recalled its members from the majority and announced that its leader Yuriy Kostenko will run for president. As such, the coalition has two less members. The UNP made such a decision due to the inactivity of the coalition. In the mean time, the UNP deputies remain in the coalition until the faction decides to part with this alliance.

Spokesperson of the Russian President Natalia Timakova denied yesterday’s statement by Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov that Mikhail Zurabov will soon arrive in Kyiv take up the post of Russian Ambassador to Ukraine.

The Verkhovna Rada will review the 2010 National Budget, though not a single decision has been approved regarding the country’s main financial document. The Communist Party of Ukraine and the Party of Regions are demanding that the draft budget be sent back to the government for revision. PoR member Mykola Azarov said this document cannot even be taken into consideration as it calls for lowering people’s social standards next year.

Petro Poroshenko was appointed Ukraine’s new foreign minister. The parliament approved the appointment by the president of Ukraine. 240 deputies voted in favor. Among them were 151 members of the YTB, 63 members of OU-PSD and all deputies of the Lytvyn Bloc. The Party of Regions and Communist Party contributed one vote each and four independent deputies voted in favor.

President Viktor Yushchenko stated at a summit of the heads of the CIS in Cisinau, Moldova that Ukraine supports the independence and territorial integrity of Moldova.

During the meeting with the acting president of Moldova Mikhaem Gimpu the sides discussed the issue of the demarcation of the border in the region of the Dniester Hydro-electric Station (HES).

Participants of the 55th General Assembly Atlantic Treaty Association being held in Kyiv said Ukraine must be included in the formation of NATO’s new strategic concept.

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