Chances of Ukraine technocrat government fade after talks stall
By Pavel Polityuk
KYIV, March 15 (Reuters) - The chances of Ukraine forming a new technocrat government to replace Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk faded on Tuesday after cross-party talks failed to produce a breakthrough, likely prolonging a months-long political crisis.
Yatsenyuk's government has been hanging by a thread since three smaller parties quit his coalition and President Petro Poroshenko pushed for the premier to resign. Technocrat Finance Minister Natalia Jaresko was touted as a possible replacement.
Ukraine needs a stable government to conclude negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for new aid worth $1.7 billion to keep its war-torn economy afloat and pass economic and judicial reforms demanded by its Western backers.
If Poroshenko cannot get parties to agree on an alternative to Yatsenyuk, it will leave in power a prime minister opposed by the majority of lawmakers and whose party's popularity ratings has fallen to 1 percent, according to a February poll.
"Last week I said with confidence that 80 percent of the government issues would be resolved this week," said Vadim Denisenko, a lawmaker in Poroshenko's party. "Now I see that everything has hit a dead end."
After Monday's cross-party evening talks, a senior lawmaker in Poroshenko's faction accused the reformist Samopomich party of killing off the chances of a technocrat cabinet to tackle financial problems and the blight of corruption.
The idea "was basically buried yesterday by Samopomich's announcement that it will not join any new coalition under any kind of government," Yuriy Lutsenko told parliament.
Samopomich has said it would agree to a new government on three conditions, including the introduction of a new electoral law.
NOTHING IS CERTAIN
The Ukrainian public has grown increasingly disillusioned with the pro-Western government that took over after the 2013/2014 Maidan street protests ousted a pro-Kremlin president.
Despite the government launching an ambitious reform programme, corruption is still endemic in the ex-Soviet country and Ukrainian soldiers are dying every week in the war against pro-Russian separatists in its eastern industrial heartland.
A foreign-born investment manager, Jaresko has been championed by Washington as a reformer. But several lawmakers in the 450-strong parliament told Reuters that not enough MPs would back her.
"Parliament will not consider the question of prime minister in the near future because nothing is agreed yet," said Boryslav Bereza, an independent lawmaker.
"There's no absolute certainty yet in any particular candidate. For example, Jaresko only has 100-150 votes. It's not worth going to the vote with that level of support."
Ukraine passes key bill required for visa-free travel to EU
Kiev, March 15, 2016 (AFP) -- Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday approved a vital anti-corruption bill that Kiev hopes will open the way for visa-free travel to EU countries this year.
The legislation establishes public oversight over the assets of high-ranking officials and their relatives.
They now have to file electronic declarations of their income and holdings and face criminal liability for any inaccurate or falsified information.
The data will be available for public scrutiny online.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Saturday vetoed an earlier version of the bill that pushed back the asset declarations until 2017.
"Parliament did everything for Ukrainians to travel to Europe without visas this year", Poroshenko tweeted after lawmakers passed the measure by an overwhelming 278-2 margin.
Ukraine's 2014 pro-EU revolution was driven in part by widespread discontent over the corruption that enriched senior officials of a succession of previous governments.
There was no immediate response to the Ukrainian parliament's vote from Brussels.
The former Soviet country had spent years negotiating a free travel agreement with the European Union.
But EU states had set a number of conditions on Kiev that included the adoptions of the so-called "electronic declarations" law.
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
