Progress on reforms and priorities for cooperation: Ukraine and the EU hold Cluster 1 meeting

More than 70 Ukrainian and European experts took part in the 9th meeting of Cluster 1 of the Subcommittee on Economy and Other Sectoral Cooperation of the EU–Ukraine Association Committee, held on 13 November at the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine.

Cluster 1 covers issues of macroeconomic cooperation and public finance management, including budgetary policy, public internal financial control and external audit, statistics, accounting and auditing, as well as anti-fraud measures.

“We are meeting for the ninth time within Cluster 1, which has proven to be an effective platform for maintaining structured dialogue and cooperation under the EU–Ukraine Association framework. The synergy of our joint work has already yielded tangible results: in this year’s European Commission Enlargement Package Report, Ukraine received its highest assessments in the past three years, confirming steady progress in aligning with EU norms and standards,” noted Yuriy Draganchuk, Deputy Minister of Finance of Ukraine for European Integration and co-chair from the Ukrainian side. He also expressed gratitude for the EU’s continued support for Ukraine’s European integration ambitions and reaffirmed readiness to advance further cooperation.

The EU delegation was led by Annika Eriksgård, Director of Directorate ECFIN D “International Economic and Financial Relations, Global Governance”, and Stephanie Pamies, Head of Unit ECFIN D2 “Neighbourhood Countries and Macro-Financial Assistance”.

EU representatives commended Ukraine’s resilience and reform progress despite the challenges of the full-scale war, and confirmed the EU’s continued commitment to supporting Ukrainian institutions on their path toward EU membership.

During the meeting, representatives of Ukrainian public authorities, together with European partners, reviewed progress in implementing reforms and outlined further priorities for advancement of the European integration agenda. Participants also discussed a number of topics, including:

• implementation of the National Revenue Strategy, including planned steps to ensure sustainable revenue mobilisation, reform of the simplified tax system, introduction of permanent monitoring of tax expenditures, and alignment of Ukraine’s tax legislation with the EU acquis;
• management of budget expenditures under martial law, particularly pension and veterans’ programmes;
• progress in implementing the Public Financial Management (PFM) Reform Strategy for 2022–2025 and preparations for the 2026–2030 PFM Strategy;
• development of public internal financial control;
• reform of the public investment management system, including lessons learned from preparation of the Single Public Investment Project Pipeline and progress on PIM reform at the local level;
• the state and further development of external audit;
• financial sector reforms, including the impact of the war on financial stability, preparation for the privatisation of state-owned banks, alignment with the CRR/CRD framework, and implementation of the Financial Sector Development Strategy;
• anti-fraud efforts, including strengthening the State Audit Service’s capacity to protect the EU’s financial interests;
• statistics, including further alignment of statistical legislation with European standards.

The meeting took place in a hybrid format (online/offline) and involved representatives of the Government Office for Coordination of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Social Policy, Ministry for Veterans Affairs, State Tax Service, State Audit Service, State Statistics Service, Accounting Chamber, National Bank of Ukraine, National Securities and Stock Market Commission, Deposit Guarantee Fund, Economic Security Bureau and other government institutions.

On the EU side, experts of the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), the EU Delegation to Ukraine, Eurostat, OLAF, DG FISMA and the Directorate-General for Enlargement and Eastern Neighbourhood (DG ENEST) took part in the meeting.