💶 Kyiv Didn’t Get €1,5 Billion from EU

Kyiv didn’t get almost €1,5 billion from EU because it hasn’t completed 3 reforms under Ukraine Facility. Why weren’t these reforms done? 🤔

On Aug. 8, the EU Council approved the transfer of €3,056 billion within the fourth tranche under the Ukraine Facility program. This is an EU project that supports the Ukrainian economy and allows the state to focus its money on defence 🛡.

Under the previous agreements, Ukraine had to get €4.5 billion for completing 16 reforms. Ukraine completed 13 instead ✅.

Spokesperson of European Commission Guillaume Mercier said that three reforms Ukraine didn’t complete are reform of Ukraine’s Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) 🏛, decentralization reform 🌍, and reform that regulates selection of judges in the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) ⚖️.

Gwara Media’s journalists studied what those are, why Ukraine needed them, and what blocked the progress.

The ARMA was created to search for likely “unlawful” property and assets, arrest them, and then transfer them into state ownership.

Also, when in criminal proceedings the court finds, for instance, a business owner guilty and confiscates their property and other assets, these assets are then transferred under the ARMA’s management.

Here’s an example: in 2018, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) launched criminal proceedings into unlawful schemes related to the gas reserves on Novoiarivsk and Novyi Rozdil thermal power stations in Lviv Oblast 🔥.

Investigation figured that because of the station’s schemes the state lost 1,4 billion hryvnias ($33,7M).

The ARMA confiscated both stations from their owners and beneficiaries and transferred the rights to manage those assets to the Naftogaz Teplo company to avoid an industrial disaster and launch a heating season for 60,000 residents of Novoiarivsk and Novyi Rozdil 🏘.

“For years of ARMA’s work, certain areas where abuses (of authority) happened have been recorded. For instance, (within) the speed with which managers of arrested assets are selected ⏳.

Plus, the competition for the position of head of the Agency was conducted without international experts 🌐, which increased the risks of illegal political influence on the commission’s decision.

And the independent audit wasn’t conducted according to law,” representatives of Transparency International Ukraine (TIU) told Gwara Media’s journalists.

Ukraine’s Parliament passed the bill for ARMA’s reform on June 18, 2025. But the president signed the bill into law in July 2025 — after the European Commission decided to cut off the fourth tranche. The ARMA reform bill was included in the parliament’s agenda back in February 2025.

TIU says that the bill was stuck in the parliament for that long because not everyone involved in passing it was interested in “cardinal changes” of the Agency’s work ✋.

Under the old law, the commission that conducted the ARMA’s audits was formed by Ukraine’s President, Cabinet of Ministers, and Parliament.

Now, under the new law, the contest is run by a commission of three experts, selected from people recommended by donors and international experts 🌍.

Ten months after the bill was made into law, this commission has to assess the ARMA’s work and release a conclusion about its efficiency ✅.

#kyiv #billion #EU #ARMA #NABU #european #commission

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In Tel Aviv, a rally was held until late at night to demand the creation of the Official Commission of Inquiry into the events of October 7 and not to grant Netanyahu presidential amnesty. ✊📢🇮🇱

#netanyahu #amnesty #commission #rally

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📰 Netanyahu’s Oct. 7 Commission: National Unity or Political Dodge?

Israel’s political arena is once again ablaze, this time over who will investigate the catastrophic failures that led to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing for a commission appointed by the Knesset, not the Supreme Court, arguing it would better represent all Israelis. Critics see it as a classic political maneuver—handing oversight to allies while sidelining independent judges.

“An unprecedented event like the 7th of October, requires a special committee, a national broad committee that is accepted by most of the people.”

— Benjamin Netanyahu

The Knesset narrowly passed the first vote to establish Netanyahu’s proposed commission, but the galleries erupted with shouts from families of Oct. 7 victims, and opposition lawmakers tore up copies of the bill in protest. The issue is fast becoming a central campaign plank as Israel heads into an election year.

The opposition, spanning left and right, is united in demanding a truly independent state commission—like those that investigated the Yom Kippur War and Sabra and Shatila. Polls show most Israelis want the inquiry led by a judge, not politicians. Netanyahu’s committee would include Knesset appointees and input from families, but its independence remains unclear.

Opposition leaders vow to establish an impartial state commission if they win power. Former PM Naftali Bennett promised,

“The moment our government is established, we will establish an impartial state commission of inquiry to investigate the failure of October 7.”

Families of the victims are demanding answers most loudly:

“We need answers to how did all of this happen and how do we prevent such a disaster from ever happening again,”

said Jon Polin, whose son was taken and later killed.

With Netanyahu pulling the strings, will this commission deliver real accountability—or just another carefully staged political performance?

#Israel #Oct7 #Netanyahu #Commission #accountability #politics

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“Oct. 7 Commission: Truth or Political Theater?”

The Great Accountability Showdown
Israel is torn over how to investigate the catastrophic failures that led to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government is pushing a new “state-national commission,” where half the members would be chosen by his coalition and half by the opposition—breaking from the usual practice of letting the Supreme Court president appoint the panel. Critics say this is less about truth and more about control, with opposition parties calling it a “shameful farce” designed to protect the prime minister from blame.
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What the People Want
Polls show most Israelis want a traditional, independent commission, one with the power to summon witnesses and assign responsibility. Past commissions have led to major resignations and reforms—like the Agranat and Kahan commissions after previous disasters. But Netanyahu insists his new commission will be “egalitarian” and “broadly acceptable,” claiming it will have the same powers as before.
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The Families Speak
Survivors and families of the victims are demanding a truly independent investigation. Over 200 families signed an open letter warning that without a proper investigation, there’s no guarantee such a disaster won’t happen again. Netanyahu has only offered bereaved parents observer status, not a real voice in the process.
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Curtain Call
So, is this about accountability—or just another carefully staged production? Will the commission actually expose the real failures, or will the script avoid the hard questions? And who benefits most from this show: the victims, or the politicians who keep rewriting the lines?
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#oct7 #accountability #israel #commission #truthortheater

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📰 When a Court Hearing Becomes a National Split Screen

Today’s hearing in the High Court on the 7 October state commission was never going to be a quiet legal exercise. In Israel, ceasefires do not end political war — they just move it into a different room, where old wounds, new blame, and raw fear start talking louder.

The fight is simple to describe and impossible to escape: should the state be forced to create an independent commission now, or should the ruling camp get to delay the reckoning until after victory, after the war, after elections, after the dust has somehow decided to settle on its own?

The court has already signaled that it is not impressed by the government’s “later” strategy. Judges have pushed the cabinet to explain why no commission exists, while the government insists the court has no right to force one — a position the bench has repeatedly rejected.

What made today different was not just the law. It was the theater outside the law: closed hearing, security concerns, livestream interruptions, judges escorted out, and MK Tali Gotliv removed after shouting at the bench. In other words, the country that cannot agree on who failed on 7 October cannot even agree on how to argue about it.

This is why the commission fight has become bigger than a commission. It is now a contest over who gets to own the meaning of 7 October: the government, the court, the families, or the politicians using all three as props.

Naftali Bennett’s line — “Whoever says ‘later’ means ‘never’” — hits because it names the political trick in plain language. Gadi Eisenkot’s warning goes further: when families of the dead are pushed onto opposite sides of the barricade, the country is no longer debating accountability; it is fighting over memory itself.

The hardest part is that the split is now visible at the door, not just in the chamber. Some bereaved families want a state commission as the only credible answer; others call the court’s involvement illegitimate and see delay as the only patriotic position. That is not a procedural dispute anymore. That is a national fracture with a legal file on top of it.

#Israel #Bagatz #7October #commission #Netanyahu #politics

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#representative #commission #security #iran

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📰 Investigating October 7, By October 7’s Own Coalition

Israel just invented a new kind of “inquiry”: a committee to investigate October 7, appointed by the people who were in charge on October 7.

The Knesset passed, in first reading, the bill to establish a political inquiry committee into the October 7 massacre — 59 in favor, zero against, because the opposition left the hall and boycotted the vote.

Half of the committee members are to be chosen by Netanyahu’s coalition, half by the opposition. The law lets the committee operate with a minimum of three out of six members — which means it can function even if the opposition never appoints anyone and only the coalition’s picks show up.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid calls it exactly what it is: “a false show” whose aim is to whitewash and prevent real investigation of “the greatest disaster to befall the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”

The October Council, representing bereaved families, says “the voice of our brothers, children and relatives is crying out from the ground,” and that this vote felt like “a second tearing” for those who lost loved ones.

One of its founders, Rafi Ben Shitrit — father of Elroi Ben Shitrit, killed at Nahal Oz — accuses the “October 7 coalition” of trying to bury the truth.

Former chiefs and politicians across the spectrum converge on the same line. Gadi Eisenkot says only someone who knows the truth and fears it would create a “political committee of inquiry.”

Avigdor Lieberman calls it a “whitewashing committee.” Naftali Bennett says bluntly: “Without an inquiry, there is no correction.” Others hammer the basic absurdity: a mechanism that lets those under investigation appoint their own investigators — and proceed even if the other side refuses to legitimize the process.

On the coalition side, the bill’s author insists the committee will deliver a “full, thorough and independent” investigation, and the official text dresses it up as a “national” body.

The final image from the vote is simple: 59 hands raised in favor, a room of empty opposition seats, and a law that says you can investigate a disaster without ever letting those who weren’t in power touch the steering wheel.

#israel #october7 #commission #netanyahu #opposition #bereavedfamilies #fakeInquiry

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