Cooperation News
Effective January 2016, a free trade zone has been established between Ukraine and the European Union. Ukrainian manufacturers were able to export 98% of goods to Europe without paying customs duties at the border, although some categories were only within quotas (for example, wheat, corn, tomatoes, honey and juice). Read more
For the first time the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) has adopted clear rules for calculating fines. It also simplified the procedure for obtaining permission for mergers and acquisitions of companies, increased the financial threshold, above which businesses should apply to the AMCU for permission. This allowed to investigate more economically and socially important cases. Experts from the German and Lithuanian competition authorities consulted the Antimonopoly Committee on improving its work and aligning Ukrainian competition law with EU standards under the EU Twinning project. Read more about the new rules for protecting economic competition here. Read more
The more the public and international donors put pressure on the Ukrainian elites concerning anti-corruption reforms, the more the latter stick together to confront these reforms. Chatham House advises to change tactics. Read more
Ukraine has the framework exercising parliamentary control over the observance of human rights, which is the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights. An “ombudsman” in accordance with the European terminology. They cooperate with him on the issues of observing the rights of persons at places of confinement, discrimination, protection of the rights of children, women, etc. However, the ombudsman does not have a structure that would deal with the electoral rights of citizens for now. Read more
Having worked for many years as a judge in Austria, Georg Stawa chaired the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice of the Council of Europe (CEPEJ) from 2014 to 2018, whose experts study the quality of work of representatives of the judicial system in different countries. In particular, in Ukraine. He is currently the head of the Department of Strategic Planning at the Austrian Ministry of Justice and an international expert of the EU Project “PRAVO-Justice”. Read more
The adherents of deinstitutionalization ideas – international organizations, politicians, public and religious leaders, human rights activists, volunteers, artistes, former pupils of these institutions and their close ones – cite numerous proofs in favor of abolishing institutional care. We see the Sumy region actively implementing new forms of working with orphans and children deprived of parental care. This year, the patronage family program is being actively implemented, and we have numerous examples of families responding to children’s problems.
One does not go to parent’s meetings at school without a wallet. That’s a simple truth of school life our parents knew by their own experience, and today, reminders about monthly contributions are disseminated via parent groups in Viber. According to data by the State Treasury Service, parents invested almost a billion hryvnias in Ukrainian schools in 2014-2016. Nobody knows how these moneys were spent, though, for detailed consolidated reports are nonexistent.
