On 21 March, representatives of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine took part in the Eighth Meeting of the EU-Ukraine Association Committee. The meeting was aimed to report on Ukraine's progress on the European integration path, share experience and best practices, and outline the next steps in the work ahead.

This is the first meeting of the Committee since the full-scale invasion. This year, it was held in a hybrid format with the participation of more than 70 representatives of the Ukrainian government and authorities. The delegation of the European Union was headed by Anna Jarosz-Friis, Director of Ukraine Service in the Directorate General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR. The event was attended by First Deputy Minister of Economy Oleksii Sobolev and Deputy Minister Tetiana Berezhna.

The key topics discussed during the Committee meeting included cooperation between Ukraine and the European Union on foreign and security policy during the war, strengthening cooperation in the areas of economy, justice, freedom and security, and implementation of the Association Agreement in the context of Ukraine's accession to the EU.

The representatives of the European Commission emphasised the great success of the Ukrainian side in implementing reforms and fulfilling the steps of the EU's Ukraine Facility support programme. They stressed that they are ready to continue to support Ukraine's macro-financial stability within the framework of the agreements.

Oleksii Sobolev, First Deputy Minister of Economy, spoke about Ukraine's compliance with its commitments under the Ukraine Facility Plan in 2024 and progress in implementing the steps in 2025. He also stressed the importance of the successful implementation of the second pillar of the programme, the Ukraine Investment Framework.

"At the stage of implementation of Pillar II - Ukraine Investment Framework, we can see that it is a really powerful and important mechanism for attracting investments and new partners for recovery. We are seeing a lot of activity from international financial organisations and development institutions that have not previously worked in Ukraine, but are now ready to participate in the bidding process. Today, we are doing everything possible to attract as much funding as possible for private and public sector projects in strategically important sectors for the state, and cooperation with European institutions, including the Ukraine Facility, is really effective here," noted Oleksii Sobolev.

In 2024, Ukraine also held a number of meetings with the European Commission to screen the compliance of our legislation with EU law in several negotiated areas. These include public procurement, economic criteria, freedom of movement of workers, freedom of entrepreneurship and provision of services, intellectual property rights, external relations, consumer protection, and freedom of movement of goods.

"Ukraine has been consistently harmonising its national legislation with EU legislation, striving to achieve full compatibility, in particular in the areas of business policy and consumer protection. We are moving in this direction every day. For example, today the Parliamentary Committee on Economic Development approved for consideration in the first reading a draft law on improving state market surveillance and the technical regulation system in line with the requirements of the European Union. I had the honour to inform our European partners about this directly at the meeting," said Deputy Minister of Economy Tetiana Berezhna.

Ukraine will continue to work together with the European Commission on the reforms set out in the Ukraine Action Plan and will develop the National Programme for the Adaptation of Ukrainian Legislation to EU Law.

Background Information

The EU-Ukraine Association Committee is the highest body of the Association at the expert level, consisting of ministerial representatives, mainly at the level of deputy ministers for European integration. The Committee assists the Association Council in fulfilling its duties and functions and performs the tasks stipulated by the Agreement and entrusted to it by the Association Council.

Meetings of the EU-Ukraine Association Committee are regular meetings where representatives of Ukraine and the European Union discuss the implementation of the Association Agreement and issues of bilateral cooperation.