Start of Ukraine’s negotiations with the EU: screening of Ukrainian legislation in the field of digital transformation and media

The next stage of Ukraine’s accession to the EU: bilateral screening meeting on digital transformation and media

Ukraine continues to move towards full membership in the European Union. A meeting was held in Brussels as part of the screening of the compliance of Ukrainian legislation with EU law under negotiation Chapter 10 – Digital Transformation and Media, coordinated by the Ministry of Digital Transformation. The Ukrainian delegation was headed by Olha Stefanishyna, the Chief Negotiator, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and Minister of Justice of Ukraine.

The two-day meeting was chaired by Valeriya Ionan, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation for European Integration, who coordinates European integration in the field of digital transformation. She presented the systematic work of the team of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, presented Ukraine’s key achievements and outlined the next steps within the negotiation chapter. Oleksandr Bornyakov, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation for IT Industry Development, also presented the results of the work and plans for the development of artificial intelligence.

Over the past months, the team of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, in close cooperation with the involved authorities, has been intensively preparing for the bilateral meeting, analysing about 120 EU acts and answering the European Commission’s questionnaire, which contained about 50 questions (over 120 pages of answers). The bilateral meeting focused on the following topics:

• Digital Agenda 2030.
• Electronic communications.
• Independence and capacity of the national regulator in the areas of electronic communications and radio frequency spectrum.
• Roaming.
• Open Internet, Radio frequency spectrum policy, Gigabit society.
• Digital services (e-commerce, implementation of DSA, DMA, P2B Regulation).
• Geo-blocking, BIK+ (better Internet for kids), Internet Governance.
• Open data.
• Electronic identification and electronic trust services.
• Cybersecurity.
• Media.
• Semiconductors.
• Artificial intelligence.
• Fighting corruption.

The European Integration team also prepared and submitted proposals for accelerating Ukraine’s integration within the negotiating section: a list of EU programmes and initiatives, as well as specialised expert groups of the European Commission, in which Ukraine is interested in participating, including Ukraine’s accession to the EU Roam Like at Home policy, was identified.

Based on the results of the bilateral screening meeting held on 31.03-01.04 in Brussels, the European Commission will prepare a report assessing the level of compliance of Ukrainian legislation with EU law under negotiation Chapter 10 – Digital Transformation and Media and provide proposals for closing the gaps. The next step will be to formulate Ukraine’s negotiating position.

Thanks to the systematic work of our team, over 5 years, the Digital Transformation and Media chapter has achieved results that the European Commission has assessed as well advanced: Ukraine has been included in the list of trusted third countries, has ensured compliance with the eIDAS Regulation; our trust services are recognised by the EU. Also, Ukraine is the only non-EU country among 20 participating countries that is participating in the development of the EU Digital Identity Wallet and joined the Digital Europe programme in 2022.

Our opportunities for bilateral cooperation between Ukraine and the EU in the field of digitalisation are extremely great. Digital transformation can become a key driver of Ukraine’s EU membership. We thank the European Commission and the experts.

Background

The Ministry of Digital Transformation, the National Commission for the State Regulation of Electronic Communications, Radio Frequency Spectrum and Postal Services, the Administration of the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection, the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications, the National Council of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting and other government agencies took part in the preparation. The meeting was attended by members of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.