In preparation for the official negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU, sectoral consultations between the Ukrainian delegation and representatives of the European Commission have recently taken place in Brussels.

The meeting was attended by Olha Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and Minister of Justice of Ukraine, Serhiy Derkach, Deputy Minister for Communities and Territories Development, and Vsevolod Chentsov, Representative of Ukraine to the EU.

The sectoral consultations are a preparation for a bilateral meeting between Ukraine and the European Commission on specific sections of the negotiations.

“The Ministry for Communities and Territories Development plays an important role in Ukraine’s European integration process, in particular through the implementation of EU legislation in the field of regional policy, transport and trans-European networks. In total, there are almost 4,000 legal acts, of which about 400 need to be implemented.

Our goal is to create an infrastructure that meets European standards in each region, enabling communities to effectively use financial instruments to implement modern transport solutions.

With regard to decentralisation, it is the communities that will play a crucial role in implementing these innovations, which will allow local authorities to implement qualitative changes that will contribute to sustainable development and improve the quality of life of people,” said Oleksii Kuleba, Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration of Ukraine and Minister for Communities and Territories Development.

“Now is the time to start a systemic transformation in Ukraine’s transport policy. We want these transformations to be fully coordinated from the very beginning and focused on the future EU accession process. In this area, we have specific sectors that are regulated in detail by EU legislation. Therefore, it is very important for us to streamline the process at the national level through preparatory work. We proposed to hold this meeting to discuss our proposals and coordinate the organisation of the process and efforts on both sides,” said Olha Stefanishyna.

The Transport section includes almost 4,000 regulations, of which almost 400 need to be implemented into Ukrainian law.

“Ukraine is now going through an extremely important stage of the negotiation process – screening the compliance of our legislation with the EU law. The complexity of transport policy lies not just in the number of regulations to be implemented, but in the fact that we are talking about physical infrastructure and technical regulations that must meet EU requirements. The Transport section covers all key modes of transport: road, rail, air, sea and river, as well as the development of trans-European networks, road infrastructure and public transport. This is not only a technical issue, but also the foundation for our further development and integration into the European transport system. Our task is to create the conditions under which Ukrainian transport and logistics will become an integral part of the European economic area,” said Serhiy Derkach.

During the consultations, the participants agreed on a further algorithm for preparing for a bilateral meeting within the framework of the screening of the compliance of Ukrainian legislation with EU law under negotiating Chapter 14 “Transport Policy”.

In the coming months, the parties will work on all areas of the Chapter to identify key gaps and develop a framework for legislative approximation in these areas. Next, the official screening of the compliance of Ukrainian legislation with EU law under the relevant negotiated chapter will take place.

As a reminder, in June this year, Ukraine started negotiations on its accession to the European Union. Currently, the European Commission is analysing the compliance of national legislation with EU law (EU acquis). Sectoral consultations within the framework of the screening are an important source of information for the European Commission on Ukraine’s readiness for EU membership. The screening takes place under 33 negotiating chapters, which are grouped into 6 thematic blocks in accordance with the revised EU enlargement methodology in 2020.