The Lviv airport comes closer to the Euro-2012
On September 17 Lvivites solemnly placed a capsule to mark the beginning of construction of the new passenger terminal of the Lviv International Airport in the framework of preparation for the Euro-2012. As admitted by the head of the Lviv Oblast State Administration Mykola Kmit, “no matter whether it is a holiday, one should take up the work.” He emphasized that everything follows The Day-by-day schedule of the UEFA. The preparation works for the beginning of the construction of the new terminal of the Lviv Airport will be carried out in a similar way. Kmit also stressed that on that day the minister of economy signed the order to start the construction of the new terminal, which will be built in at maximum two years, or even less. Kmit reported that the terminal will cover an area of 36,000 sq. meters. “It will provide 300 Lvivites with a job.
We expect that with a flow of 5-6 million tourists they will see a European-city service,” the head of the Lviv ODA said. In his words, Lviv has for long needed a new terminal and a new runway. “Today’s event is a new phase of the Lviv region’s development,” Kmit emphasized. In his words, the second round of works, the construction of the terminal part, has practically started (the first one started before then).
The third round, the revamp of the old terminal and building a temporary one, is still lying ahead. The entire complex will be able to handle 2,900 people per day, the head of the Lviv ODA reported.
Ukrainians distrust banks
According to a telephone poll about stability of the national currency conducted by the Horshenin Institute as part of the Crisis Pulse sociological surveys program on September 14–16, 2009, 85.7 percent of Ukrainians do not trust banks, while 56 percent of the respondents keep their savings in euros. A thousand respondents aged 18 and over were polled in all regional centers of Ukraine.
This all-Ukrainian survey shows that the vast majority of Ukrainian residents (88 percent) are worried over the fall in the hryvnia’s exchange rate. To be more exact, 62.3 percent of those polled are very much worried and 25.7 percent are more or less worried over this. Only 9.6 percent of the respondents are not inclined to worry over the hryvnia’s rate, out of which 4.7 percent are not at all concerned about the cheapening of the national currency, and 4.9 percent are probably not concerned. Some two percent found it difficult to answer this question.
Over 49 percent of Ukrainians believe that the main cause of the hryvnia’s fall is the wrong policy of the state. About a third of the polled (32.2 percent) think that the national currency fell in value due to stock market speculations and machinations and every fifth citizen (20.1 percent) see the root cause in the global crisis.
Some 22 percent of the polled think that the hryvnia has been devalued due to a difficult situation in the Ukrainian economy, while 17.3 percent link the hryvnia’s cheapening to the beginning of the election campaign in this country, while 1.1 percent of Ukrainians found it difficult to answer this question.
Almost the same number of Ukrainians blames the President (28.1 percent) and the national Bank of Ukraine, which he controls (25.1 percent) for the hryvnia’s instability.
Other guilty parties lag behind by a large margin: the Cabinet of Ministers (13.7 percent), bankers, oligarchs, and businessmen (9.4 percent), and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (8.7 percent); 1.2 percent of the respondents failed to spot those responsible for the national currency’s devaluation. More than a half of Ukrainians (55.6 percent) believe that it is now best of all to keep savings in euros.
Constitutional Court gives impeachment law red light
The Law “On Ad Hoc Investigation Commissions, a Special Ad Hoc Investigation Commission, and Ad Hoc Special Commissions of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine” is unconstitutional, ruled the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. The law was appealed by President Viktor Yushchenko to the Constitutional Court on the grounds that its official publication referred to the date when it was first passed, Jan. 15, 2009, rather the date of when it was reconsidered, March 3, 2009, and the law was not signed by the VR speaker.
The court ruled that the wrong date and the absence of the VR speaker’s signature violate Article 94 (4), of Ukraine’s Constitution, which prescribes the enactment procedure.
Under Article 152 (1) of the Constitution, this is grounds for recognizing the entire law unconstitutional. In this case the law becomes invalid on The Day the Constitutional Court of Ukraine passes its decision, which is mandatory for fulfillment and cannot be appealed.
Meanwhile, Anatolii Selivanov, parliament’s representative to the Constitutional Court, said he is convinced that the Verkhovna Rada will return to this law.
