European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy, Olivér Várhelyi, and Ukrainian Prime Minister, Oleksiy Honcharuk, called for the establishment of the Agreement on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products (ACAA).
“We are open to facilitate trade between the EU and Ukraine as much as possible. We therefore agree that it is a priority to establish the ACAA – essentially, the synchronisation of technical standards for industrial products in order to facilitate trade”, the Commissioner announced at a press conference in Kyiv.
Mr Honcharuk hoped that preparatory work would be speeded up this year, “in order to have this regime in place as soon as possible”, hoping that an EU expert mission would soon come to the country to assess the situation.
“Our staff will start working on this as a matter of priority”, confirmed the Commissioner. The EU will compare Ukrainian rules with EU legislation, make recommendations to the country, and “when we are sure that the rules in Ukraine and the EU are exactly the same, we will move on to the formal part of the negotiations”, Mr Várhelyi explained, hoping that this will be possible this year.
The Commissioner also called for work in all areas that can bring growth and jobs, such as connectivity, the Green Deal, energy, transport and education. This common priority “should also stimulate foreign direct investment”, he announced, adding that the EU and Ukraine would work to create a business climate “based on the rule of law, with the eradication of corruption and oligarchic influence”.
In addition, the EU and Ukraine have signed an EU support agreement of €25 million for e-governance and the digital economy. Mr Honcharuk hoped that in 3 years’ time, all Ukrainian public services would be digitalised and in 1 year’s time 50% of the most important services would be digitalised. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)