By the 7th anniversary of the signing of the economic part of the Association Agreement (AA) between Ukraine and the EU, representatives of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine presented a government report on the implementation of the AA in 2015-2020. For the first time, the Government of Ukraine presented a report on the implementation of the AA and summed up the effects of Ukraine’s integration into the EU cumulatively over 6 years, not just the previous year.
“Over the past 2 years, the dynamics of the implementation of the Association Agreement on the approximation of legislation has increased tremendously. Our relations with the EU are not static, but dynamic, and there is a dependence on the progress of previous years – the more successful and powerful we work today, the more opportunities we have tomorrow, “said the Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs. and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine Olga Stefanishina.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine, much of the work is also devoted to Ukraine going beyond the “homework” format.
“For five years, Ukraine has been consistently implementing legislation related to technical regulation, and today we are talking about the signing of the ACAA Agreement, and this work is being done by the European Union – it is mutual bilateral negotiations. In 2019-2020, the Parliament and the Government adopted the long-awaited changes related to the reform of customs policy, and today we plan that at the Ukraine-EU summit there will be a decision to start negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the European transit system. We can also confirm today that the sphere of telecommunication services is recognized as the sphere where Ukraine will receive the first regime of the internal market. That is, we say that physical “stitching” in terms of joint commitments in the framework of European integration takes place, “said Olga Stefanishina.
The official also stressed the need to update the Association Agreement and develop tools that will allow Ukrainian entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized businesses to remove barriers created by the lack of logistics, proper border customs infrastructure and technical barriers to trade.
“One of the priorities I set for myself when Parliament decided to appoint me Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration is the issue of cross-border cooperation. Although the Agreement does not contain strict commitments in this direction, I believe that this is a fundamental thing that needs to be implemented today. And this year, for the first time since 2013, the Government approved a plan of measures to develop border and customs infrastructure on the border with all European countries. This year, absolutely all negotiations with neighboring countries – Romania, Poland and Slovakia on work in this direction – were “unfrozen”, – said Olga Stefanishina.
The event noted the key achievements of the six years of Ukraine’s integration into the EU:
Decentralization reform is one of Ukraine’s success stories. One of the components of the reform was the creation of almost 900 CNAPs, which now provide convenient public services to citizens. The reform has increased the economic, social and investment opportunities of the regions.
The titanic shift of Ukrainian exports to the EU Single Market, where product safety requirements are among the strictest in the world and a very high degree of competition. Since the beginning of the free trade zone, the share of trade in goods and services with the EU is more than 40% of Ukraine’s total trade. After the visa-free regime, which opened the free movement of persons, the EU DCFTA also opened access to the European market, and most of our exports to the EU are today goods and services produced by Ukrainian small and medium enterprises. Thus, if in 2013 Ukrainian exports to the EU amounted to 13.4 billion euros, in 2019 it reached 19.1 billion euros.
Customs: customs formalities for enterprises with a high level of trust are simplified, grounds for mutual recognition of the status of authorized economic operators are created. In March 2021, the stage of national application of the electronic transit system (NCTS), which is the basis of the European common transit system, began.
Significant progress in the digital sphere, where telecommunications services are now seen as the first area to be covered by the EU’s internal market regime.
Food safety.
Integration into the European energy market. Today, Ukraine is fully synchronized with Europe in the mode of operation of the gas market by switching to daily balancing. With regard to the electricity market, in April 2021 the Parliament recently passed a law on the certification of the transmission system operator of NEC Ukrenergo. This creates preconditions for the synchronization of the unified energy system of Ukraine with the unification of the energy systems of the EU member states ENTSO-E.
Government Procurement. Ukraine has introduced European rules in the field of public procurement, so now they are possible only through the electronic system ProZorro, minimizing the human factor and corruption risks. Thanks to the introduction of this system, the state has saved hundreds of billions of hryvnias.
The launch of a full-fledged river transportation market began with the adoption of the Law of Ukraine “On Inland Water Transport” in December 2020.
Since the beginning of the temporary application of certain provisions of the AA, Ukraine has implemented 56% of the measures provided for in the government’s Action Plan for the implementation of the AA until 2024. Monitoring of Ukraine’s implementation of the Agreement is available in the government’s information and analytical system “Pulse of the Agreement”.
The greatest progress has been made in the following sectors of the Agreement: political dialogue, national security, and defense (89%), justice, freedom, security, human rights (86%), removal of technical barriers to trade (85%), public procurement ), humanitarian policy (84%).
At the same time, in 2020, Ukraine has advanced in the implementation of its obligations by 10%. The vast majority of the activities performed during the year are the completion of tasks that were not performed in previous years.
The report on the implementation of the Agreement was prepared by the Government Office for Coordination of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of the SCMU with the support of the Office of the Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine and experts of the EU Association4U project.
The full text of the report is available at the following links: in Ukrainian, English.
For reference
The event was attended by representatives of the Government of Ukraine and the European Commission, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and the European Parliament, as well as representatives of EU projects, civil society, and the expert community. The presentation was supported by the EU project Association4You