The Government endorsed the Annual National Program (ANP) for 2020 which had been elaborated under the auspices of the NATO-Ukraine Commission and is based on a methodology of measured results, focuses on human security, contains a monitoring mechanism for the implementation, and builds on the principles, structure and content of NATO membership action plans of countries that had become members of the Alliance.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the relevant document at its meeting on Wednesday, February 5. Aftermath, the act will be submitted to the President of Ukraine.

“Our Government has included in its Action Program an ambitious goal: in five years Ukraine should achieve the criteria for joining the NATO. What kind of Ukraine we will have when it achieves the level of NATO standards? It is a state for which the safety and well-being of the citizen are the focus. The state that is capable of defending its human-centric principles,” said Prime Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Honcharuk.

This year's document contains a number of innovations. For the first time, the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of the individual are put at the center when planning the content of the program. This is such a human-centric approach the North Atlantic Alliance is committed to.

In addition, the document was first developed with applying the international Results-Based Management (RBM) method. Such a methodology is used in the preparation of similar strategic documents in NATO member states, the World Bank, and the UN.

“We are speaking the same language with the Alliance. The Annual National Program for 2020 has been written in the NATO language, the language of concrete measurable results, and it addresses specific problems in particular areas affected by reforms, as well as places emphasis primarily on human security and well-being. This roadmap for Euro-Atlantic reforms reliably leads our country to high NATO standards,” said Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Dmytro Kuleba.

It is critical that the ANP-2020 was being developed simultaneously with the State Budget for 2020, so all the measures envisaged in the program are financially supported. The creation of an independent external monitoring system for the implementation of the ANP is envisaged for the first time. As the list of reforms included in the program is rather broad and concerns bringing a number of areas of the country's activity in compliance with the Alliance’s standards, monitoring the implementation of the program will become a kind of audit of the country in line with NATO criteria.

The ANP envisages both security and defense sector reforms as well as democratic transformations within the country. Among the top priority reforms are, in particular, bringing to compliance the entire defense forces management system, strategic and operational (combat) management, communications, intelligence and surveillance aligned with NATO standards and compatibility, introducing democratic civilian control, providing conditions for participation of Ukrainian enterprises in NATO multinational projects in the field of development and production of weapons and equipment, etc. Among others, inter alia, are a shaped market economy, a transparent tax system, effective scientific cooperation between Ukraine and countries-members of the NATO and the EU, a counter-terrorism system that makes Ukraine a reliable partner in the international security environment, the development of a system of national sustainability and protection of critical infrastructure, so on.

The Annual National Program is modeled as close as possible on the content and principles of the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) and has the same structure of five sections: I. Political and Economic issues; II. Defense/Military Issues; III. Resource issues; IV. Security issues; V. Legal issues.

The ANP is a key instrument for Ukraine's integration into NATO and a roadmap for reforms aimed to translate Alliance standards and principles into reality. It was elaborated by the Alliance in 2008, when at the Bucharest Summit, allies welcomed Ukraine to NATO membership. This year, the implementation of the ANP is aimed at achieving goal 17.2 of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Action Program “Ukraine meets the principles and criteria necessary to acquire membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization”.