Ukraine has joined the Connecting Europe Facility. The relevant Agreement between Ukraine and the EU on Ukraine’s participation in the European Union’s Connecting Europe Facility was signed today in Lviv by Oleksandr Kubrakov, Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration of Ukraine and Minister for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development, and Adina Vălean, European Commissioner for Transport.

“How will we use this opportunity? First of all, we will focus on the development of export logistics on our western borders. We are talking about increasing the capacity of road and rail checkpoints. We are already discussing with our European partners the implementation of the first six project proposals. We have submitted applications and expect the results of the selection process in June.

At the same time, we have started working on the preparation of project proposals for the next year. I thank Adina Vălean and our EU partners in general for their cooperation and real practical steps towards Ukraine’s integration into the European transport space,” said Oleksandr Kubrakov.

The signed Agreement opens up the possibility of attracting EU funding to support the development of efficient, sustainable and interconnected trans-European networks in the fields of transport, energy and digital services.

The total budget of the programme until 2027 is around EUR 21 billion.

Projects submitted to the CEF are financed with half of the costs covered by the applicant country from its own sources or from international financial organisations, and 50% of the funding provided by the programme.

This year, the Ministry for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development, jointly with other EU member states, submitted six proposals for consideration. All of them are aimed at optimising and modernising traffic flows in terms of infrastructure capacity at international road and rail border crossings.

During the meeting with Adina Vălean, Oleksandr Kubrakov also informed the European partners about the russian terrorist attack on the Kakhovka HPP dam. Immediately after the signing, the Deputy Prime Minister left for Kherson region.