The Government has elaborated preliminary proposals for a joint roadmap with the EU on Ukraine’s participation in the European Green Deal.
This topic was discussed on August 10, at a meeting of the working group chaired by Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Olha Stefanishyna. Proposals were prepared with the involvement of representatives from ministries, businesses, civil society and experts.
“Ukraine is already part of the European Green policy, which aims at economic development based on innovation that does not harm the environment. After all, we signed an Association Agreement with the EU, which covers all areas included in the Green policy. This new policy will affect trade with all countries that have free trade agreements with the EU. However, any decision of the European Commission should not contradict the spirit of the free trade area functioning. We should also take part in consultations on carbon and technical regulation so that they do not create barriers to trade for Ukrainian business,” said Olha Stefanishyna.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister, Ukraine’s involvement in the implementation of the European Green Deal should be through updating the annexes to the Association Agreement and approaching with EU policies in the fields of environment, energy, industrial issues and trade. The new regulations should not create obstacles to the integration of Ukrainian producers into the EU’s industrial production chains, while trade should develop in accordance with the joint commitments under the Association Agreement and the World Trade Organization.
Besides, since the achieving of ambitious goals of the European Green Deal for a climate-neutral European continent, where the use of fossil fuels is minimized, requires joining efforts of different countries, co-funding should be applied.
“We plan to consolidate our areas of cooperation at the Ukraine-EU Summit in October in the framework of the Green Deal implementation. We expect that this will also allow strengthening cooperation with the EU within the existing programs and start working with new “green” and climate financial mechanisms for Ukraine,” Olha Stefanishyna told.
Among the priority areas for Ukraine under the European Green Deal are considered the following: improving the energy efficiency of the economy, fair transformation of the coal sector, development of renewable and hydrogen energy, development of a national greenhouse gas emission allowance trading system, sustainable agriculture, digitalization of the economy, greening the transport, scientific cooperation etc.
Source: Ukraine Govt.
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