EBA calls for extension of criticality update deadline and existing reservations

The European Business Association (EBA) has appealed to the government to extend the existing reservations and postpone the deadline for updating the criticality of enterprises.

The EBA justifies this call by the fact that after the cyberattacks at the end of 2024 and the rather lengthy restoration of state registries, the reservation and criticality status systems have not been working all this time. The shutdown of the registries also caused a significant delay on the part of most authorities in approving sectoral and regional criteria.

“As a result, a long queue of applications for this status has accumulated at the level of ministries and local authorities. Obviously, the state apparatus will not be able to process all applications and grant the appropriate status to all truly critical enterprises by February 28,” the EBA said in a statement.

For this reason, the business community is asking to re-extend the current reservations for 2 months and to postpone the deadline for updating the criticality until April 30, so as not to overload the limited capacity of the current criticality system and to promote the stable operation of the economy.

In addition, the EBA points out that a legal gap in the relevant criteria and procedure for granting it in terms of submitting tax reports for the fourth quarter of 2024 may be the reason for a large number of refusals to obtain criticality status.

“We are talking about the fact that applications for criticality are submitted in January, and tax reporting for the 4th quarter of 2024 is due in the second half of February. In its December review, the Australian Department of Industry, Science and Resources predicted that coking coal prices would average $211/t in FY2024/2025 (ending in June 2025) and $205/t in FY2025/2026.

Last October, the EBA noted that Ukrainian business needs a predictable and transparent booking mechanism. As of mid-2024, 86% of the EBA member companies surveyed had employees in the Armed Forces. In 52% of companies, the number of mobilized persons reached up to 10% of the total number of persons liable for military service, in 28% – 10-20%, in 6% – 20-40%. In 46% of the companies, critical specialists are among the mobilized or volunteers.