Ukraine's Cabinet Unfreezes Accounts of Public Broadcaster

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has adopted a resolution amending the procedure regulating the use of state funds provided for the financing of the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine (UA:PBC).

This was reported by the Government Portal.

Thus, the document, developed by the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, "allows UA:PBC to pay off in 2020, based on a court decision, the debt to Euronews, including the payment of executive fees and other costs of enforcement proceedings."

READ MORE: Ukrainian Public Broadcaster Has All Accounts Frozen By Ministry of Justice

In turn, the acting Minister of Culture and Information Policy Svitlana Fomenko stressed that the problem of financing the Public Broadcasting Company, which had been going on for several years, has now been finally resolved.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Justice opened enforcement proceedings against the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine (UA:PBC), which resulted in the immediate freezing of all UA:PBC accounts on February 18, 2020. The Ministry took this step in order to recover approximately 10 million euros, owed to European television channel Euronews.

The sum was as the result of actions taken by the previous Ukrainian public broadcaster, the National Television Company of Ukraine, which had partnered with Euronews in 2010 to create a joint Euronews Ukrainian division. The National Television Company later ceased to provide contract-stipulated funding to Euronews, which led to the enforcement decision.

UA:PBC inherited this debt from the National Television Company following its formation in 2017, when the National Television Company was merged with the National Radio Company to create UA:PBC.