Today, 25 January, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Olha Stefanishyna met in Brussels with EU Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms Elisa Ferreira.

The parties discussed the development of cross-border cooperation, Ukraine's participation in EU regional programmes, enhancing the institutional capacity of Ukraine's regions on the path to EU membership, and the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Ukrainian territories in cooperation with neighbouring countries.

"Expanding Ukraine's participation in EU cross-border programmes is particularly relevant, as Ukraine is actively moving towards EU membership and needs assistance in rebuilding and restoring in the context of russia's ongoing war against Ukraine," said the Deputy Prime Minister. "We welcome the EU's decision to reallocate funds released due to the cancellation of russia's and belarus' participation in EU regional cooperation programmes. And we are grateful that additional EUR 135 million will be used to finance regional development projects between Ukraine, Moldova and the EU."

Thus, at the end of 2023, Ukraine signed financial agreements for five EU regional cooperation programmes Interreg NEXT 2021-2027: Poland-Ukraine, Romania-Ukraine, Hungary-Slovakia-Romania-Ukraine, Black Sea Basin, and Danube Regional Programme. The Deputy Prime Minister emphasised that this would help to solve common regional problems, as well as strengthen existing and build new partnerships between Ukraine and neighbouring EU member states.

Olha Stefanyshyna also stressed that Ukraine and Moldova were interested in establishing a bilateral regional cooperation programme, as the countries needed their own experience in launching and concluding such agreements.

The parties also discussed the possibility of launching training programmes for Ukrainian civil servants.

"To prepare for and conduct successful negotiations on EU membership, especially within the framework of Chapter 22, Regional Policy and Coordination of Structural Instruments, we need to ensure high institutional capacity on the ground," said Olha Stefanishyna, "Introducing appropriate training, experience exchange or other possible involvement of Ukrainian civil servants in the internal work of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) would be an effective tool in this regard. This would provide an opportunity to study how EU cohesion policy is created and implemented, and to adopt best practices."

The Deputy Prime Minister also drew attention to the importance of building the institutional capacity of communities participating in European regional cooperation programmes: we need to teach communities to create projects, promote them and actually implement them.

For her part, EU Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms Elisa Ferreira assured that the EU would continue work on strengthening cooperation between the EU regions and Ukraine and would provide comprehensive support to Ukraine on its path to EU membership.