Ukraine and EU sign several bilateral agreements

Several critical bilateral documents were signed on the sidelines of the 8th EU-Ukraine Association Council meeting in Brussels.

Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, and EU Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton signed the agreement on Ukraine's participation in the European Union's Digital Europe Programme (2021-2027).

The document will ensure Ukraine's participation in this program following the principles and conditions established by Article 451 of the Association Agreement between Ukraine.

Participation in digital implementation programs should ensure mutual benefits for the parties, respecting a high level of data protection, digital rights, fundamental rights, and ethical standards, and recognizing that the parties reserve the right to limit or condition participation in certain activities based on duly justified reasons and security considerations.

They also signed an agreement on financing the measure "Reducing vulnerability and increasing food security through support for the affected population and agricultural production in Ukraine (State Building and Resilience Contract)."

The total estimated cost of this measure is EUR 500,000,000, and the maximum contribution from the EU is EUR 500,000,000. Following the agreement, the EU agrees to provide financing, and Ukraine accepts the funding of such a budget support measure.

On behalf of Ukraine, the document was signed by the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Olha Stefanishyna, and on behalf of the European Commission by Deputy Director-General, Acting Head of Ukraine Support Group, Katarína Mathernová.

They signed additional agreement No. 1 (in the form of an exchange of letters) between the government of Ukraine and the European Commission, acting on behalf of the European Union, to the agreement on the financing of the measure "EU Emergency Support Programme in favor of Ukraine" (NDICI-GEO-NEAR/2022 /ACT-60748). The goal is to amend the agreement on financing the Emergency Support Programme in favor of Ukraine.

The proposed changes include changes to the distribution of the estimated budget, which must be made by considering the reassessment of the population's needs and the executors' capabilities to implement them. Accordingly, the grant budget component will increase by EUR 122 million due to the reduction of the indirect management and procurement elements. In addition, minor linguistic corrections have been made to better reflect the current state of the war.

The Minister of Finance of Ukraine, Serhii Marchenko, and the Commissioner for Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, signed the Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union on Ukraine's participation in the EU's Fiscalis Programme for cooperation in taxation.

They also signed an agreement on Ukraine's participation in the Customs Programme.

Read Rubryka's timeline of war: current news on Ukraine's defense against russia's aggression.