Transcarpathians will live in a time zone of their own

Deputies of the Zakarpattia Regional Council are concerned with the Verkhovna Rada’s decision to abolish switching to the so-called “winter time,” reads the council’s address that was adopted at its extraordinary session on October 10. The motion to send the address was carried by 94 “yeas” out of 96 deputies present. The Zakarpattia Regional Council’s Chairman Ivan Baloha says that “the Zakarpattia Regional Administration has received numerous complaints with negative reactions to this resolution of the Verkhovna Rada. Winter is coming and we have no time to waste it waiting. That’s why it was decided to convene an extraordinary session.” The address reads: “The adoption of this resolution means actually Ukraine’s transition to the GMT +3 time zone, while over 90 percent of the nation’s territory is located in the GMT +2 time zone. Transition to the GMT +3 time zone is unreasonable both economically and geographically for the Transcarpathian region, which has lived according to the Central European time for many years.” Oleksandr Ivashkovych, Head of Information Technology Bureau of Information Technology and Customs Statistics Department of the State Customs Service of Ukraine, says the parliament’s decision ignored not only interests of children who now have to wake up earlier in the morning to go to school, but also the state border’s functioning, because as a result of time zone changes, the time difference with our neighbor Europe will amount to two hours in winter, producing mismatches in working schedules of customs officials from both sides that will result, in their turn, in long queues on the border. Consequently, the region’s investment and tourism attractiveness will decrease. All the local experts agreed that switching to the winter time once and for all would be the most advantageous course of action for the entire country. Should the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine refuse to repeal the resolution in question, the Zakarpattia Regional Council will meet in early November to introduce the region’s own local time. Let’s recall that this paper’s Ukrainian-language edition published in its No. 179 on October 6 an article about chairman Baloha’s elder brother, Emergencies Minister Viktor Baloha’s letter to the Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn. The minister asked the speaker to initiate a review of the parliament’s decision to change the method of time-keeping in Ukraine.