On the day of the official start of the screening of Ukrainian legislation within the framework of the negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU, acting Minister of Youth and Sports of Ukraine Matvii Bidnyi met with European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth Iliana Ivanova to discuss further steps to develop cooperation with the European side in the areas of youth and sports.

During the meeting, Matvii Bidnyi stressed the need to implement special support programmes for Ukrainian youth temporarily staying in EU member states to help them adapt to the social life of European countries and expressed hope that these issues would be included in the agenda of the next meeting of the European Council on Youth, Culture and Sport.

It was noted that thanks to the joint decisive steps of Ukraine and the European Commission, despite the ongoing aggressive war on the part of russia, significant results have been achieved in expanding opportunities for Ukrainian youth and sports organisations within the framework of the EU Erasmus+ programme.

"Ukrainian youth and sports organisations have already stepped up their efforts to establish links with European organisations to create joint projects. This once again confirms that Ukraine is Europe. We share common values and common interests," said Matvii Bidnyi.

The participants of the meeting also touched upon the approval by the EU of the Regulation on the establishment of the Ukrainian Fund and the development of a Plan that will contain a vision for the restoration, reconstruction and modernisation of Ukraine, as well as reforms to be implemented as part of the EU accession process. Matvii Bidnyi called for attention to be paid to the return of Ukrainian youth and their participation in the reconstruction, including during this year's Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC2024) in Berlin.

One of the important topics of the bilateral meeting was the position of many European governments and sports organisations, in solidarity with the Ukrainian side, that it is unacceptable for russian and belarusian athletes to participate in international competitions, including the Olympic Games, while russia's aggression against Ukraine continues.

The acting Minister briefed the European Commissioner on the database of athletes and coaches from aggressor countries that support the war against Ukraine, which had been created on the Ministry's website, and called on the European side to use and disseminate this data to prevent them from participating in competitions, including applying visa restrictions.

Iliana Ivanova assured of the European Union's continued unwavering support for Ukraine, as well as its readiness to continue to exert sanctions pressure on the aggressor countries through joint efforts.

With the aim of continuing the joint dialogue and coordination of actions, Matvii Bidnyi invited Iliana Ivanova to visit Ukraine and develop a joint action plan in the context of the Lviv - European Youth Capital 2025 initiative.