O.Zholud "To write off 20% of Ukrainian debt instead of expected 40% is a small win"
31.08.2015A 20% write-off of Ukrainian public debt is a small win, ICPS economic expert Oleksandr Zholud says. Ukrainian government expected that Ukraine's creditors would write off as much as 40% of its pending debt. However, foreign creditors decided differently.
A 20% debt haircut is only half the amount of the debt the Ukrainian government wanted to see written off, especially taking into account similar experiences of some other countries that had gone through debt restructuring.
Ukrainian finance minister Natalia Yaresko announced that she had agreed with foreign creditors on a 20% write-off of Ukrainian debt. Also, the repayment period was extended until 2019-2027.
According to Mr Zholud, Ukraine could have had more of its debt written off. Greece, for example, had 52% ofs its public debt written off, though this year Greece has resumed negotiations on debt restructuring.
Mr Zholud believes that it is far more effective to write off the entire debt instead of making small debt "haircuts", getting bogged down in endless negotiations along the way. The most important thing is that Ukraine received the possibility to work normally with the IMF, as under a Memorandum signed between Ukraine and the IMF, Ukraine will receive $40 bln in loans for the period of three years, $18 bln out of which will be provided by the IMF and a little bit less than $10 bln will come from other international organizations (World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development). Ukraine should save $15 bln on debt repayment in 3 years of cooperation with the IMF.
New write-offs of Ukrainian debt will be contingent upon Ukraine's economic performance over the next years and its ability to make due payments starting from 2019.
The Divine Comedy of Ukrainian politics continues
Expert of the International Centre for Policy Studies Anastacia Galouchka about the first round of Ukrainian elections and atmosphere in the country in the article for Kyiv Post. Article via the link: https://www.kyivpost.com/article/opinion/op-ed/anastacia-galouchka-the-divine-comedy-of-ukrainian-politics-continues.html
ICPS in Global Go to Think Tank Index 2017
International Centre for Policy Studies was included into the Global Go to Think Tank 2017 Index report on research and analytic centers. “Think Tanks and Civil Society Program (TTCSP)” of the Lauder Institute of the University of Pennsylvania is engaged in conducting researches on the role which political institutions play in civil society in the whole world. The given program supports the database and network of more than 7500 analytic centers in 181 countries. TTCSP annually releases the Global Go to Think Tank Index report which provides the indices of the leading world analytic centers in different categories. This ranking aims to increase ability and effectiveness of analytic centers as well as the public’s awareness about important role of analytic centers throughout the whole world. In 2018 the 11th publication of the Global Go to Think Tanks can be considered primarily as the recognition of important achievements of the global think tanks and the performance of development trends. According to the results of the above mentioned rankings process the International centre for Policy Studies has been ranked the 34th in the category “Top Think Tanks in Central and Eastern Europe”, therefore winning 6 positions for 2 years. Also the ICPS was ranked 112 in the category “Top Foreign Policy and International Affairs Think Tank” and improved the position it held the previous year.
Visa-liberalization for Ukraine, what's next?
The Council of the European Union approved the legislative proposal to abolish short-term visas for Ukrainians. The signing ceremony of the corresponding decision is planned on May, 17. In fact, the visa-free regime will come into force in 20 days after the publication - roughly on June, 11. About this and other international developments that will affect Ukraine, the ICPS expert Yevhen Yaroshenko told.
Ukraine does not adhere to the schedule of reforms agreed with the IMF
Summary of the political week from ICPS expert Igor Petrenko: May “holidays” of VRU, the effectiveness of the main legislative body and perspectives of the major decisions making. The potential threat of disruptions of Ukraine's commitments to the IMF as part of the pension reform, the opening of the land market and establishment of specialized anti-corruption court.
The statement on the inadmissibility of persecution for expressing an expert opinion
To the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko To the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko To the Prosecutor of Autonomous Republic of Crimea Giunduz Mamedov On April 13, the office of the International Centre for Policy Studies (ICPS) in Kyiv was searched as part of the case on the so-called “peaceful plan of MP Artemenko” by the officials of the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. People’s Deputy Andriy Artemenko is accused of high treason under the Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. He is charged with the assistance to Russia in conducting subversive activities against Ukraine that expressed in the appeals to let Crimea in long-term lease to the Russian Federation and thereby to legitimize temporary occupation. In the basis of the “peaceful plan” of MP Artemenko, as it stated in a court order for search conduction, there is a plan“Ideas for the conflict settlement in Donbas” authored by Vasyl Filipchuk. Not sharing the views of MP Artemenko on “peaceful settlement” ways, we state the illegality of accusations of high treason for the presentation of any ideas, including ideas on peaceful settlement. We are outraged by the search in the analytical center ICPS within the investigation on the case of high treason. These actions of the state are in violation of Article 34 of the Constitution of Ukraine, Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and also contravene the practices of the European Court of Human Rights (Zana v. Turkey (1997), Lingens v. Austria (1986), § 40; Barfod v. Denmark (1989), Wille v. Liechtenstein (1999) etc.). The search in ICPS is not limited to the violations of the Constitution of Ukraine and international agreements. We qualify the following actions of the state as the offensive against key freedom – expression of views - as an attempt to monopolize the market of ideas and to enforce a state doctrine to the society as the only possible under the pain of prosecution of those who offer other approaches, in especially serious crimes – high treason. Disproportionate state interference in the activities of think tanks is purely obscurantist attempt to establish a monopoly on the truth. ICPS activities by their nature are research and scientific ones. Ukraine declares its desire to become a fully legitimate member of the EU but violates a fundamental principle of the European Union, enshrined in Article 13 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (2000), according to which, the arts and scientific research shall be free of constraint. Instead, it is the doctrine of "Russkiy mir" which can be characterized by the state monopoly on the truth, restrictions on freedom of expression, persecution for beliefs. Our war with Russia is primarily a war of values. These actions of the state are the value-based defeat, surrender of public interest and “high treason” in the long run. We cannot fight against “Russkiy mir” by means of “Russkiy mir”. We demand to stop the persecution of the think tank ICPS and immediately return everything that was seized during the search. We consider this incident as a manifestation of general trends on violating the balance between national security and human rights for the benefit of national security by the Security Service of Ukraine and prosecuting authorities. And we want to remind once again that a political regime which violates human rights is doomed to failure. Arkadiy Bushchenko, Executive Director of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Yevhen Zakharov, Director of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group
ICPS OFFICIAL STATEMENT
On April 13, 2017 the office of the International Center for Policy Studies was searched. At about 16.00 unknown persons who introduce themselves as investigators of the prosecutor's office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the officials of the Security Service of Ukraine entered the office with the aim to hand suspicion to Vasyl Filipchuk and to carry out the search in the office. For more than 5 hours, employees were limited in movement and forbidden to use any means of communication. Physical violence was committed against Vasyl Filipchuk which was fixed by respective photo evidence. The entrance to the office space was blocked, investigators refused to pass defenders, lawyers, police and even emergency doctors. According to the investigators, the search was made within the criminal case of “Artemenko”as they consider that ICPS helped the People`s Deputy to elaborate “peaceful plan” of the conflict settlement. WE STRESS that neither ICPS nor experts have been involved in such elaboration of “peaceful plan” or had any personal contacts with the People`s Deputy Andriy Artemenko. ICPS is working for a long time on finding possible ways of peaceful settlement in Eastern Ukraine with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation. All activities within the project “Modelling of the Minsk agreements implementation and support of strategic advisors to the Ministry of Temporary Occupied Territories and IDPs” were PUBLIC, and analytical materials are in open access on the official website of the Center. Ukrainian MPs and the Deputy Minister of Temporarily Occupied Territories and IDPs Georgiy Tuka were involved in pubic consultations. ICPS has always maintained and continues maintaining state position to preserve the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine! ICPS continues current project activities and is committed to its obligations in cooperation with its partners. We consider such actions as unprecedented pressure on civil society and disgrace of judicial system in Ukraine. We call on colleagues from the civil sector, representatives of diplomatic corps and entire international community todemand that persecution of independent analytical centers must be stopped!