Eurointegration
«European integration»
After proclaiming independence, Ukraine has adopted the decision to conduct its foreign economic policy on European vector. Today the European Union (EU) is one of the most important partners of Ukraine, which is interested in supporting and developing of solid, predictable, transparent and open relations.
Since 1998, Ukraine has been collaborating with EU within the framework of the Program of Integration of Ukraine to the European Union. The main provision of the Program, in implementation of which the Fund has been involved, envisaged the development of infrastructure of the stock market and reformation of energy sector with conduction of effective privatization. The EU has always underlined that successful implementation of internal reforms had always been and is still the main factor of Ukraine’s integration to European economic territory.
Implementation of the Ukraine-European Union Association Agreement will contribute to promoting the bilateral relations between Ukraine and EU to the next level of quality and creating conditions for membership in EU. This Agreement envisages transition from principles of partnership and collaboration to principles of political association and economic integration. The Agreement regulates political, economic and cultural relations between Ukraine and EU and is the legal basis of bilateral trade. One of the main tasks of the Agreement is to facilitate trade and attraction of investment, and development of harmonious economic relations between Ukraine and EU.
On March 21, 2014, during the extraordinary Summit Ukraine-EU, the Prime-Minister of Ukraine A.Yatseniyuk signed the political part of the Association Agreement, in particular the Preamble, Article 1, Titles I (General Principles), II (Political Dialogue and Reform, Political Association, Cooperation and Convergence in the Field of Foreign and Security Policy) and VII (Institutional, General and Final Provisions). This step of the Government of Ukraine has initiated the beginning of development of steady democracy and market economy in Ukraine.
On June 27, 2014 the President of Ukraine P.Poroshenko, on behalf of Ukraine during the EU Council meeting signed the text of the Association Agreement. It is expected that the Association Agreement will contribute to the reduction of corruption, strengthening of consumer protection, increase of export of Ukrainian products and services to countries of EU, improvement of climate for small and medium business, social policy, education, implementation of new standards of environmental control, facilitation the development of space sector, science, technology and information society.
On September 16, 2014 the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the European Parliament simultaneously ratified the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement.
The Agreement will completely come into effect after its ratification by all Parties, on the first day of the second month following the date when the last certificate of ratification would be placed at the deposit of the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union. As for today, the Agreement has been ratified by Ukraine, the European Parliament and 24 EU Member States.
Within the framework of collaboration with EU, the Fund has been involved in realization of the following documents:
- The Agenda of the Ukraine-EU Association in the part of development of open, competitive and transparent rules and procedures of privatization and strengthening of corporate governance, in particular state enterprises, including reorganization of state enterprises and strengthening the management of the state property;
- The Plan of Actions concerning the implementation of agreements, reached during the first meeting of the Ukraine-EU Association Committee in the part of securing the conduction of effective privatization in compliance with international standards, including primary audition;
- The Scheduled Plan of implementation by Ukraine the provisions of the Memorandum of Understanding between the European Union and Ukraine as Borrower and the European Union as Creditor, concerning receiving by Ukraine the Macro-Financial Assistance from the European Union in the amount of up to 1,8 billion euro, signed on May 22, 2015.
In order to receive advanced experience of Member States of EU, the Fund uses instrument of external assistance of the European Union – TAIEX (Technical Assistance Information Exchange), objective of which is to provide assistance for beneficiary-states to adopt national legislation in compliance with EU legislation.
Thus, in 2015 the expert mission entitled “Procedures of obtaining by the state proprietary rights on objects of social needs, which reside in private property” was conducted in the Fund.
Currently, preliminary works on arrangement of two seminars continue. Topics of the seminars are:
- examination of European experience concerning the state control on securing the increase of efficiency of activity of enterprises, which are being privatized (date of conduction – I half of 2016)
- studying the European models of corporate governance. Implementation of optimal models on Ukrainian state enterprises. (date of conduction – I half of 2016)
And eight more requests for receiving technical assistance within the frameworks of TAIEX are under consideration in National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service.
Within the frameworks of the new project “Information concerning the Association Agreement between Ukraine and EU: what it means for me?”, initiative of the Delegation of the European Union in Ukraine, new web-platform europa-torgivlia.org.ua has been presented. Its objective is to provide information assistance for small and medium business for preparing business-space, which will be secured due to implementation of the Association Agreement. This guide for small and medium business contains the text of the Agreement with EU, information concerning the free trade zone between Ukraine and EU, etc.
Web-platform europa-torgivlia.org.uafor assisting small and medium business in Ukraine is HERE