27 June 2015: One year on from the signature of the EU Association Agreements with Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine

Each Association Agreement includes a so-called Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area which opens the way for increased trade with the EU, bringing the three countries closer to the EU than ever before and giving the access to the biggest internal marketin the world, with more than 500 million customers.

Moldova's exports to the EU increased by 20% last year, growing faster than general trade, which went up by 8%. Georgia has also seen its exports to the EU rise by 12% in the first six months of the Association Agreement.  Read more at http://eeas.europa.eu

Ukrainian government expects to sign agreement on EIB's EUR 400 mln loan under energy efficiency program in July

This announcement was made by Deputy Prime Minister Henandiy Zubko during his meeting with regional governors last week.
He also emphasized that loan has very favorable conditions: the lending period is up to 30 years for water supply utilities and 20 years for heating utilities.

Energy efficiency financing in Europe – governmental vs utility programs

Well known German economist Prof. Dr. Peter Hennicke, who 30 years ago co-authored the book "The Energy Revolution Is Possible", now is concerned about his country’s insufficient progress in energy efficiency, comparing to other EU countries. Germany, the continent's largest user of energy, ranks now 18th in terms of final energy intensity out of 28 E.U. countries. It has been overtaken by number of other European countries, including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France, and dropped down now even below the E.U. average level.

Despite German law provides more than 80 policy measures spread out over seven federal agencies, yet, over the past two decades, primary energy consumption in Germany has hardly declined. Facing threat of legal action because of noncompliance with the European Union's 2012 Energy Efficiency Directive, in 2014 German government adopted additional measures, including energy efficiency tax bonus.

Another program, very successful Danish approach, doesn’t rely on energy efficiency financing from the state budget. Rather, it puts energy efficiency obligation on energy distributors of electricity, gas, district heating and oil, who engage private companies to implement energy efficiency measures and finance them by adding the cost to distribution tariffs. This way Denmark fostered creation of the energy services industry involving specialized installers, construction companies, engineering firms and real estate managers. Usually they do not assist with financing or offer guaranteed energy savings, like traditional ESCOs, but, instead, they help energy consumers to implement the savings and qualify for the subsidy from the energy distributors. Since the program's inception in 2006, Denmark has tripled its energy savings to a 3 percent annual rate, Read more at http://www.eenews.net/

Ukraine’s economy is past the worst and is heading for expansion

Ukrainian Minister of Economy Aivaras Abromavicius said in an interview in New York last week that the growth happened for the first time since 2012, and he expects gross domestic product will grow as much as 2.5 percent in 2016, if the conflict with pro-Russian separatists in easternmost regions doesn’t escalate.

After a record 17.6 percent annual contraction in the first quarter growth may resume in the fourth quarter even as the economy will decline 7.5 percent to 9 percent in 2015. The government is seeking foreign investments to boost growth and plans talks with companies active in industries from retail to energy, Minister said. “The worst is already behind us. We now have to focus on improving the business climate, fighting corruption, selling state assets and changing the tax system in order to secure growth. It’s time for radical changes”, he said.  Read more at http://www.bloomberg.com

Ukraine is seeking new terms on debt from private bondholders

Ukrainian government holds restructuring talks with creditors to save $15.3 billion by 2018 in payments on external bonds without a principal write-down. To unlock further aid from an International Monetary Fund bailout Ukraine is seeking new terms on $19 billion of debt from private bondholders.

Ukraine is giving its creditors a few weeks to accept a restructuring proposal sent last week before imposing a moratorium on payments. The IMF is ready to keep supporting Ukraine even if the country stopped paying its bondholders. Read mpore at http://www.bloomberg.com

The Eastern Europe Energy Efficiency and Environmental Partnership (E5P) will invest in energy efficiency of Ukrainian buildings

The announcement was made by Е5Р Manager Anders Lund at a meeting with  Chairman of The State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving Serhiy Savchuk, where the sides discussed the possible ways of extending government support to modernize heating efficiency of public buildings.

The E5P's 9th Steering Group meeting  took place in Kiev on 2 June 2015 to check the
progress with projects under implementation and considered new proposals for E5P co-financing. The Steering Group approved a new proposal by the EBRD to create a financing facility for energy efficiency measures in the residential sector of Ukraine, which will include both investment and technical assistance grants. Also, two new projects for energy efficiency measures in public buildings in Ivano-Frankivsk and in Chernivtsy  were approved by the Steering Group
E5P was created in 2009 as a EUR 170 million multi-donor fund managed by the EBRD and designed to promote energy efficiency investments in Ukraine and other Eastern Partnership countries.

Agency, responsible for Ukraine’s climate change policy, was liquidated to cut governmental spending

State Environmental Investment Agency (SEIA) and seven other governmental agencies and services were liquidated according to Cabinet of Ministers’ Resolution N422 “On optimization of the system of central executive power”.

SEIA was created in 2007 for development and implementation of the national policy on GHG emission mitigation and adaptation to climate change, coordination of activities to meet the requirements of the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol, creation and support of the national GHG registry and carbon trading market. Agency also coordinated international activities related to climate change. After SEIA liquidation, its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, which previously supervised SEIA activities.