Statement of Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal at the Government meeting

Good afternoon, dear colleagues, dear Ukrainians.

Since 2014, the russian leadership has concentrated a huge amount of resources to disrupt Ukraine's integration into the EU. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, russia has not accepted the fact that Ukraine is an independent state. Now they cannot comprehend that Ukraine will soon become a part of the EU. For us, the question here is not "if" but "when".

At a time when russia is doing everything to derail our European integration, our achievements in this area appear even more important.

In June 2022, Ukraine received the status of a candidate for EU membership. This is a fundamental change in our relations with the European Union. This is a landmark event for many generations of Ukrainians who fought and believed in European Ukraine.

In the sphere of European integration over the past 10 months we have managed to do what we had planned to do for at least several years.

Despite the war, we received five "visa-free regimes" with the EU. In March, we signed the "energy visa-free regime" and joined the European energy network. In June, we received economic and transport "visa-free regimes". Due to this, all duties and quotas on Ukrainian goods exported to the EU were abolished, as well as the need to obtain permits for road freight transportation through the EU was removed.

In October, the "customs visa-free regime" was added, which simplifies customs procedures and integrates our customs into the European one. Ukraine also became a member of the Digital Europe programme. Dozens of regulatory acts have been adopted that synchronize our legislation with the European one, as well as promote the introduction of the best European policies and practices.

We understand perfectly well what we need to do and in what sequence to become an EU member as soon as possible.

Now we are completing the implementation of seven recommendations of the European Commission, which will allow us to launch the next steps for integration. We also have to analyze the compliance of our legislation with the EU legislation to clearly understand the scope of work to be done.

In parallel with the conformity assessment, adoption and enactment of European legislation, we will prepare for direct negotiations on the accession process.

What does it mean? Ukraine's negotiating position will be formulated, identifying our strengths, the limits of compromise, how accession to the EU will affect individual sectors of the economy and the state as a whole. Teams of negotiators from the Ukrainian side will be formed, who will be able to professionally discuss details in various areas. This will be the basis for the opening of official accession negotiations.

Then we have to go through the negotiations, which should culminate in the signing of the Agreement on Ukraine's accession to the EU. We expect to pass this way in less than 2 years. And then Ukraine will become a full member of the EU. All barriers to trade, restrictions on the movement of workforce will be finally abolished, Ukraine will have access to the EU structural and investment funds.

The amount of work is enormous. However, we can see that our European partners are willing to cooperate productively in the issue of integration.

A vivid evidence of this will be the visit of President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen in the coming weeks. We expect that more than 10 European Commissioners will come to Ukraine together with Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen to hold intergovernmental consultations. This will become not only an important signal of further support for Ukraine in the war, but will also demonstrate the openness of the EU to the negotiation process on Ukraine's accession.

An important part of our cooperation with the European Union will also be a joint implementation of the Grand Ukraine Recovery Plan. Reconstruction will serve as a unifying idea for Europe. As President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized, rebuilding Ukraine is not about some vast future. This is a project that we are starting right now.

Yesterday in Irpin, we announced the restoration of the first 18 apartment buildings that had been damaged during the russian occupation of part of Kyiv region by means of the United24 platform. This is the beginning of a large-scale work on the restoration of residential housing, to be carried out throughout the country.

For this purpose, today the Government is creating a new structure on the basis of the State Agency for Infrastructure Projects and the State Agency of Motor Roads of Ukraine - a State Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine. This will allow optimizing work processes, avoiding chaos in the planning and implementation of projects.

We already know the sources of UAH 110 billion for the reconstruction this year. At the same time, we expect that we will be able to accumulate 6 times more funds to restore as much infrastructure and housing as possible in 2023.

Finally, I will dwell on another important decision that we will approve today and which concerns one of the most important reforms in the field of improving the business climate. I mean deregulation.

Now in Ukraine there are almost 1,000 instruments of state regulation for business. 528 permits, 224 licenses, 157 consents, and dozens of declarations, conclusions, and certificates. We have the political will and the political decision to radically reduce all these. For this purpose, today we are creating an interdepartmental group, which will expedite the review of all these control and regulatory instruments.

So, we work further. We believe in the Armed Forces. Glory to Ukraine!