Address by the Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk
Dear compatriots,
On January, 22, we celebrated the Day of Unity of Ukraine.
I consider the unity of Ukraine as the unity of all Ukrainians, all
world Ukrainian diaspora down the years, in
geographical sense and around the common national idea.
Unity means inseparability and integrity of our lands from Kyiv to
Sevastopol, from Donetsk to Lviv, from the
Carpathians to the Black Sea.
Russian occupation of Crimea and Donbas is ephemeral. This is the last
agony of Putin's empire, which has no historical, political or military
perspective.
Unity of Ukraine means the unity of past and future of our people. But
the nation is fully alive only if it thinks about the future. To me the most
important meaning of the unity is collective solidarity of Ukrainians on the
main ideas of our future.
Only our own country can protect us. This was proved by history.
Free and prosperous Ukrainian state of XXI century is our central goal.
Our common, big and distant dream is living in a free, well-equipped and
protected house with rule of law, justice for everyone and kindness to each
other.
In our home we want to preserve national identity.
Like any other nation, our people are unique. Our cultural and
linguistic uniqueness distinguishes us in the world and enriches mankind.
Welfare in our house is formed by means of free competition, good
quality of work, initiative and responsible citizens, for whom the State
provides free and equal conditions.
Justice must rule in our house. This means equality of all before the
law, fair distribution of national wealth, equality of rights and duties, equal
opportunities for everyone and assistance for people in need.
The Justice means that
there are the guilty verdicts to criminals, murderers and corrupt officials from
former regime, which are still haven’t been delivered for the last two years.
We, the Ukrainians,
started the return to the house of our dreams two years ago.
Many friends of Ukraine in the world evaluate our activities well.
But the reality does
not satisfy us. We did a lot to move away from the past, but, too little – to
get closer to the dream.
What has been done in
these two years? We filled the state treasury, wrote off a foreign
debt, disallowed in default, doubled the gold and foreign currency reserves of
the state, got off energy and economic dependence on Russia, presented united
international front and imposed sanctions against Russian aggressor.
We conduct lustration and reduce bureaucracy, deliver the powers and
commend the funds from the center to local authorities by the decentralization;
we create new army and new police from scratch.
We timely pay salaries and pensions; we introduced energy subsidies to
every third citizen.
We have begun a large-scale deregulation of the economy, we drastically
simplified the administrative services, approved the progressive law on public
procurement.
We became a part of the European Economic Area and fulfilled all
requirements to the Ukrainians have the right to travel without visas to
Europe.
We restored roads, schools and hospitals.
We have started the process of changes in every field. And all of this –
is only a small part of what we managed to do recently.
Under the conditions of war.
In terms of occupation of the territories and with losses of 20% of the
economy.
We gave a rebuff to Russia. National, armed and economic one.
Dear fellow citizens,
Every example that I cited - is the result of hard work of many people
in the government and presidential team, in the Parliament, our forces and
civil society; it is the result of your support and concern.
Yes, many of things we didn’t get a chance to do. I know and do
understand each miss or mistake. As far as I know is how together with you to
correct them and move forward.
2016 presents itself with a wide agenda. We must frankly admit – it will
be a difficult year. The world economy runs a fever. There is a rapid decline
in world prices for basic products exported by Ukraine - agricultural, metal,
ore. The world is weakened by military conflicts, terrorism, so as millions of
migrants and displaced people, political uncertainty over elections in leading
Western states.
Ukrainian politicum has to meet the threats in
2016 with all the sobriety, maturity and responsibility.
In advance to the work by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine I appeal to
national political forces with several fundamentally important tasks related to
the entire state and every citizen.
First. We must
ensure the stability of governance and both the legislative and the executive
powers.
Let me remind you that our Government does not exist independently from
the Parliament. The government is formed by the parliamentary coalition. Eleven
members of the Government represent the President and his Bloc. Four members of
the Government and the Prime Minister are from the “Narodnyi Front”. The “Batkivshchyna” and the “Samopomich”
have one for each.
For a long time the coalition doesn’t find a position with the number of
Ministers as for the recall so for the appointment. I refer again to the
coalition to immediately launch a transparent and public discussion on
potential candidates and without wasting time to appoint the government posts
with competent professionals who will be in confidence and support by the
coalition.
Second. I stand
for updating the coalition agreement.
The agreement should be transformed from a political manifesto into a
politically and legally binding document with a clear schedule and sequence of
steps.
In every country with the similar transformation, the parliamentary
coalition approved up to the 90% decisions proposed by the government. It is
what is called as the political unity and common political responsibility. In
our case, such a level of coalition support to the government is not even worth
talking.
Third. This
year, government policy will have a few basic guidelines.
New jobs. We will
continue to carry out tax reform, economic deregulation and its
de-monopolization. Recent tax changes have been made to meet the requirements
of the national business. In response we expect the mutual support from
entrepreneurs in order to clean the state’s body from corruption and tax
evasion.
New markets for
Ukrainian products. We will concentrate forces for obtaining all
possible advantages offered by the Agreement on a free trade area with the
European Union. Special trade missions of our country abroad designed to
support Ukrainian exports will be another area of work.
New education and
health care. A 2016 pilot project will be the creation of new
regional schools and hospitals, which will be associated with the emergence of
strong united local communities: "Thus, decentralization, in addition to
new financial and governance opportunities, will open for people high-quality
standards of education and health care.
New infrastructure. In order
to provide a Ukrainian citizen with free and comfortable opportunities for
movement across the country and the European Union, we will continue to build
roads, develop border infrastructure, upgrade the railways and assist.
Transparent
privatization. Eleven times the Parliament
failed to vote on a new privatization law, which is able to attract billions of
investment and ensure fair rules for the sale of state companies. Allow the
Government to conduct a transparent privatization that will attract new
investment and create new jobs.
Administrative
services. We will continue to work on the simplification of administrative
services in the country. The main focus will be on the reform of the State
Fiscal Service. Leading foreign companies will take over the control of several
Ukrainian customs as an extraordinary way to combat corruption and abuse.
And now the main. The time has come for the Ukrainian people to have
their word on what a new Ukrainian Constitution in a new European Ukraine
should be. No one but the Ukrainian people has the right to determine what the
fundamental law will be. The constitutional referendum is a direct popular rule
in a free and democratic country, for which we were fighting on the Maidan two
years ago and are now protecting with arms in hands.
A new Constitution is a new social contract between citizens and the
power which they have elected. An accord on the distribution of rights and
responsibility inside the very power – between the President, Government and
Parliament. An accord on relations between the center and regions. An accord on
establishing a new honest and just court, but not reappointing the current one.
An accord on a Ukraine’s accurate geopolitical aim to become a member of the
European Union and NATO.
I am convinced that the Head of State has the same principles.
Dear compatriots,
To me unity means actions and deeds.
The main reason for the defeat of our state in the beginning of
twentieth century was not the lack of national heroes or sacrifice.
Ukrainian politicians of that time were the victims of Bolshevik radical
populism, for which there was no fuse. Red Terror subsequently destroyed any
possibility for resistance.
We must break this vicious circle of history. Modern national political
class has no other way. Either the wave of political irresponsibility and
deceit destroy us or for the first time in a modern history we will find the
possibility to go for long distances.
And the ability to gain a big victory, which for me is the essence of
Ukraine.
May God protect our sovereign State, our troops and our great nation.