On Thursday, October 8, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal chaired the first meeting of the Coordination Center for the Transformation of Coal Regions. The Minister for Communities and Territories Development Oleksii Chernyshov, acting Minister of Energy Olha Buslavets, representatives of ministries, other central executive bodies, people's deputies, heads of regional state administrations were also participating in the meeting.

The participants tackled the creation of the Concept of Reforming the Coal Industry and Coal Regions of Ukraine and the National Program for Transformation of Coal Regions until 2027, as well as raised an issue of the prospects of energy partnership between Ukraine and Germany with regards to the transformation of coal regions of Ukraine.

Denys Shmyhal stressed that the reform of the coal industry has been identified by the President of Ukraine as one of the priority tasks. And this topic has been repeatedly raised at meetings with Ukraine's international partners. "We had a personal discussion of the coal transformation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans. All international partners are ready to support our aspirations and initiatives in the fair transformation of coal regions," the Head of Government said.

The Prime Minister noted that many coal companies are now running out of resources, so it is necessary to develop appropriate concepts, strategies and launch pilot projects today.

At a meeting of the Coordination Center acting Minister of Energy Olha Buslavets presented the Concept of reforming the coal industry and the Government's Priority Action Plan in the coal industry. It outlines the main problems of the coal industry and suggests possible ways to solve them.

"The industry needs urgent and comprehensive reform, which will be based on the needs of the state in the field of energy, social development of mining regions and Ukraine's international obligations, in turn, based on objective capabilities of both the public sector and state authorities," said Olha Buslavets.

In addition, the Minister for Communities and Territories Development Oleksii Chernyshov presented the vision of the National Program for Transformation of Coal Regions of Ukraine until 2027. The concept contains key principles and components of regional transformation, as well as ways to stimulate investment in coal-mining areas.