First Tymoshenko government

The first Tymoshenko Government was appointed on February 4, 2005, by 373 Parliamentarians of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament). It was supported (also by) opposition factions' Parliamentarians, including three Communists, 18 Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united) members, 46 Regions faction members.[1][2]

First Tymoshenko Government
10th Cabinet of Ukraine (since 1990)
Date formedFebruary 4, 2005
Date dissolvedSeptember 8, 2005
People and organisations
Head of stateViktor Yushchenko
Head of governmentYulia Tymoshenko
Deputy head of governmentAnatoliy Kinakh
No. of ministers22
Member partyYulia Tymoshenko Bloc
NUNS
Socialist Party of Ukraine
PPPU
Opposition partyCommunist Party of Ukraine
Opposition leaderPetro Symonenko
History
PredecessorFirst Yanukovych government
SuccessorYekhanurov government

On September 8, 2005, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko sacked the entire government after both Deputy Prime Minister Mykola Tomenko and presidential chief of staff Oleksandr Zinchenko spoke out that the government was "riddled with corruption".[3]

Creation

Government program "Towards the people"
Faction[4] Number of deputies For Against Abstained Didn't vote Absent
Our Ukraine 101 99 0 0 2 0
Communists 59 0 0 0 37 22
Regions of Ukraine 54 43 0 0 4 7
Unaffiliated 33 27 0 0 1 5
People's Agrarian Party of Ukraine 33 32 0 0 0 1
Socialist Party of Ukraine 24 24 0 0 0 0
Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united) 23 16 0 0 4 3
One Ukraine 22 20 0 0 0 2
Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc 18 17 0 0 1 0
Democratic Ukraine (group) 16 16 0 0 0 0
People's Will 15 14 0 0 0 1
Union (group) 15 14 0 0 1 0
Democratic Initiatives (group) 14 14 0 0 0 0
Center (group) 12 12 0 0 0 0
Faction of PDP and Republic (group) 10 9 0 0 0 1
All factions 449 357 0 0 50 42

Composition
Party key Our Ukraine
Socialist Party of Ukraine
Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko
Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Ukraine
Office[5] Name minister[5] Party[5]
Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko
First Vice Prime Minister Anatoliy Kinakh[6]
Vice Prime Minister on European Accession Oleh Rybachuk
Vice Prime Minister on Humanitarian and Social Issues Mykola Tomenko
Vice Prime Minister on Administrative Reform Roman Bezsmertny
Minister of Education and Science Stanislav Nikolaenko
Minister of Transport and Communications Yevhen Chervonenko
Minister of Culture and Tourism Oksana Bilozir
Minister of Economics Serhiy Teryokhin
Minister of Labor and Social Policy Viacheslav Kyrylenko
Minister of Defense Anatoliy Hrytsenko
Minister of Health Safety Mykola Polischuk
Minister of Industrial Policy Volodymyr Shandra
Minister of Internal Affairs Yuriy Lutsenko
Minister of Agrarian Policy Oleksandr Baranivsky
Minister of Justice Roman Zvarych
Minister of Foreign Affairs Borys Tarasyuk
Minister of Family, Youth and Sport Yuriy Pavlenko
Minister of Finance Viktor Pynzenyk
Minister of Fuel and Energy Ivan Plachkov
Minister of Environmental Protection Pavlo Ihnatenko
Minister of Emergencies David Zhvania

Key economic achievements of Tymoshenko’s government

Increased salaries, pensions, scholarships;

Fulfilled one of the paragraphs of social program from Yushchenko's election agenda on support for new families: in 2005 a social aid for a newborn child was increased 12 times;

“Contraband stop” campaign was launched. The campaign was accompanied by eradication of shadow schemes in business;

Call for nationalization and re-privatization of more than 3000 enterprises. Eventually the government nationalized and then re-privatized country's biggest metallurgical plant “Kryvorizhstal”. In October 2005 it was sold for $4 billion to a new owner, which was an impressive amount compared to $8.5 billion received by the government from privatization between 1991 and 2004;

On June 16, 2005, president Viktor Yushchenko, speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Lytvyn and Yulia Tymoshenko signed a memorandum on guarantees of ownership rights and ensuring lawfulness for their implementation. According to Yushchenko, “Ukrainian government brought murky privatization practice to the end”;

Reaction to crises on internal market

In April–May 2005 Ukraine faced so called “meat, sugar and petrol crises” when prices for the abovementioned products went up by 30-50% over a couple of weeks. These crises allegedly resulted from a cartel conspiracy and it took Tymoshenko's government about 1.5 months to get the prices down to the initial level with the help of “goods intervention” mechanism;

The meat crisis was caused by increased demand for meat as a result of increased salaries. Tymoshenko's government lifted duties on imported meat, which dropped the speculative prices Tymoshenko's political opponents (Yushchenko and Yanukovych) kept criticizing her for importing “low quality meat”. At that time Tymoshenko's government made a decision to increase production of poultry, which eventually made Ukraine a poultry exporter.

The sugar and petrol crises were caused by a “cartel conspiracy” which increased prices for the abovementioned goods by 30-50%. Tymoshenko's government organized importation of cane sugar and dropped duties on imported oil products. In a couple of months the prices stabilized. In 2006 the Anti-Monopoly Committee, who investigated the “sugar crisis” issued a conclusion which said that it was a cartel monopoly with a participation of Petro Poroshenko, then-head of the National Council of Security and Defense.

In May 2005, at the height of the petrol crisis, Viktor Yushchenko publicly, sharply criticized Tymoshenko for “pressure on oil traders”.

References
  1. "PRESS RELEASE OF THE EMBASSY OF UKRAINE TO THE REPUBLIC OF ESTONIA". Archived from the original on 2011-07-20. Retrieved 2009-06-16.
  2. SDPU(U) faction will support Yulia Tymoshenko's appointment Prime Minister Archived 2010-12-06 at the Wayback Machine, Radio Ukraine (February 2, 2005)
  3. Ukraine leader sacks government, BBC News (September 8, 2005)
  4. "Офіційний портал Верховної Ради України".
  5. PRESIDENT YUSHCHENKO APPOINTS THE NEW PRIME MINISTER AND MEMBERS OF HER CABINET, European Parliament (February 4, 2005)
  6. First Vice Premier Anatoli Kinakh introduces Yuri Artemenko, newly appointed Zaporizhia Governor, to regional administration staffers , Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (February 12, 2005)
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