The Unified Comprehensive Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development in Ukraine 2015-2020 is our common ground. We must continue participating in its development to achieve specific results. The EU representatives and the donor community stand by your side in the implementation of reforms in Ukraine. This is what Nicolas Verlet, the Chairman of the Agriculture team of the Support Group for Ukraine at the European Commission, stated while commenting on the performance of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine at the Board meeting of the Ministry.

In his speech, Nicolas Verlet thanked Minister Oleksii Pavlenko and his deputies, heads of departments for the opportunity to contribute to the development of the Strategy, which is the result of an unprecedented collaborative process. “It is necessary to implement the Strategy, to fill it with outcomes for farmers and the business community. We believe that our meeting is important for monitoring of the implementation of the Strategy by the Ministry, civil society and stakeholders. We would like to encourage the Ministry to develop a more precise document, with tasks, work methods and procedures,” he said.

The official stressed that the European Commission highly appreciated the completion of the action plan that had been was submitted. “We reaffirm that the Strategy is an integral and high-quality document. The EU and the whole donor community will adopt certain positions with readiness to implement the mentioned document”, Nicolas Verlet summed up.

For his part, Adrian Neal, the representative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Ukraine, expressed gratitude to the team of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy for the showcase of its work. “We saw, together with you, how difficult it was to coordinate the reform activities. One needs to focus on the coordination of work. The building of a team and of best structure of partnership will be the next step to implement reforms”, Andrian Neal stressed in his speech.