EU4PFM stays united with Ukraine and continues to provide support to partner institutions’ immediate needs

The 9th EU4PFM Project Steering Committee took place on 12 July 2022. The event gathered partners from the Ministry of Finance, State Tax Service, State Customs Service, ​​Accounting Chamber, and Bureau of Economic Security with the participation of the European Delegation to Ukraine representatives and EU4PFM international key experts.

EU4PFM Team Leader Jurgita Domeikiene welcomed the participants of the Steering Committee meeting and expressed continuous and uninterrupted support to the partners. 

 «Despite the destruction and enormous losses brought by Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified attack on Ukraine, EU4PFM stays united with Ukraine, continues to provide support to partner institutions’ immediate needs, implements necessary reforms in the field of public finance management, and will support the reconstruction of democratic Ukraine and its further path towards EU membership», – commented Jurgita Domeikiene.

 Overview of project activities, budget execution, results achieved in the first part of 2022, and priorities for the second part of 2022 – this was the topic of the 9th Steering Committee meeting. 

 «I would like to express my gratitude for the support that the European Union and each of you have personally provided to us since the first day of Russian aggression. Thanks to the rapid repurposing of the EU4PFM project to meet our urgent IT needs, it was possible to ensure the smooth operation of the systems of the Ministry of Finance, State Treasury Service, State Tax Service, and State Customs Service. In the current conditions, this is extremely important not only for the financial system but also for the functioning of the entire country under martial law. We also welcomed the decision of the EU to grant Ukraine candidate status and were glad to find out in the European Commission’s conclusion the recognition of the progress in reforming the public finance management system, that we have achieved with your support», – said Denys Uliutin, First Deputy Finance Minister of Ukraine.

 The priorities of the Project activities were:

According to International Key Expert on Customs Vytenis Ališauskas, completion of NCTS conformance testing, presentation of recommendations based on the EU e-Customs initiative, and evaluation of the Draft Law on amendments to the Customs Code of Ukraine were the main achievements in the customs stream in the first half of 2022.

In the tax area Paulius Majauskas, International Key Expert on Tax, told about achievements as follows: drafting the Legislation on implementation of OECD Automatic Exchange of Information Standard, development of E-cash registers application and SAF-T file as a part of E-audit tool, as well as support in drafting martial law legislation.

 «This is the first Steering Committee since the beginning of the war, so I would like to say that we stand with Ukraine, we want the victory of Ukraine, and we support Ukraine by any means. One example of our support is repurposing EU4PFM assistance to address the urgent needs of partner institutions. Moreover, despite the war, a lot of work is continued, including the preparation for accession to the Convention on Common Transit and joining OECD Global Framework for Automatic Exchange of Information. These are very important milestones for 2022 that are identified before the war and we continue our work in this direction.» This was mentioned by Xavier Camus, Head of Operations Section 1 “Good Governance and Democratization” of the European Delegation to Ukraine.

 EU4PFM continues its work taking into account the urgent needs of its partners during the war and the post-war recovery plan for Ukraine.

 The next EU4PFM Project Steering Committee is scheduled for January 2023.