Ukraine

The delay with the implementation of the DCFTA had caused some concerns that important economic reforms associated with the Agreement could be delayed. However, one year after the Agreement signature, reforms are moving forward.

According to the Business Tendency Survey, a quarterly survey of industrial enterprises in Ukraine carried out by the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting (Kyiv), the biggest obstacles to production growth in Ukraine in May 2015 were low demand, liquidity problems, excessive taxation, and unstable political situation.

The events during the Christmas Truce 1914 were described by Robert Naiman as “the most morally compelling acts of spontaneous mass civil disobedience in recorded human history”. The anniversary of this date is a perfect opportunity to investigate the power and impact of free press not only in those times, but also in present day when it comes to Ukraine-Russia- conflict.

Recent energy reforms in Hungary made the country dependent upon Russia what in the midst of the current EU-Russia relations strongly affected by the escalating tensions makes the situation of Hungary more difficult.

We have the pleasure to present you the first round of 4discussion devoted to the situation in Ukraine and the EU sanctions directed at Russia. See what do Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, Taavi Roivas, Tanja Porcnik and Ivan Miklos say on the topic and feel free to comment on that!

Unlike in the EU, where SMEs are among Horizon 2020 priorities, in Ukraine the role of SMEs in innovation and S&T development is underestimated on the policy making level.

The ongoing conflict and economic downturn have taken a toll on Ukrainian businesses across the sectors and sizes. For them, the current political and market uncertainty would make a zero-growth scenario look like a positive development, which, however, is not yet in sight.

The economic situation in Ukraine in 2015 and 2016 will depend on progress in externally supported reform program and on stabilization in the Eastern Ukraine. Fiscal consolidation, decline in real wages and unemployment will cause reduction of real private consumption. Weak hryvnia, despite dragging down consumption and investments, helps to increase fiscal revenues and narrow the current account deficit.

Low demand and unfavorable political situation are the major obstacles for the development of industrial enterprises in Ukraine as of early 2015. Such were the results of the quarterly business survey in which Ukrainian businesses assessed the 4th quarter of 2014 conducted by the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting.

“Nations, just like women, experience brief moments of intoxication. But those moments pass soon enough.”. Adam Michnik talks to Leszek Jażdżewski, editor-in-chief of Polish liberal quarterly magazine Liberté!, about how a brief moment of European weakness will affect Russia in the end and what can go wrong in the meantime.