Holding the economic front: the results of the ninth meeting of the EU Twinning Project Steering Committee

Ukraine's acquisition of the status of a candidate for the European Union poses new challenges to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine and actualizes the deepening of cooperation within the framework of the EU Twinning project. Such an opinion was expressed by the Chair of the AMCU and the Leader of the Project from the Ukrainian side, Olha Pishchanska, during the ninth Project Steering Committee on July 1.

The Chair of the AMCU thanked foreign colleagues for their support and solidarity in wartime conditions and noted that this project is a driver of the European integration of the AMCU.

“Now we have several fronts – the military and, no less important, the economic front. AMCU is one of those institutions whose activity directly affects the speed and quality of bringing all Ukrainian economic processes to EU standards. In the last three months, as part of the Twinning project, we worked on the most priority bylaws. Special attention was paid to those related to Leniency and Settlement,” the Chair of the AMCU emphasized.

Olha Pishchanska noted that the other day these positions were discussed in detail with colleagues from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The Chair of the AMCU also noted the importance of adoption of draft law № 5431, which is key to the implementation of the first stage of the competition reform. According to her, after receiving the status of a EU candidate, Ukraine should significantly accelerate the reform of legislation and proceed to the implementation of the second stage.

The Chair also thanked the partners for their fruitful work within the OECD Competition Week in Paris.

In response, Project colleagues noted the resistance of the Ukrainian side, which continues to work in war conditions.

“The new status of Ukraine as a candidate for the EU imposes a certain responsibility and provides new opportunities both for Ukraine, namely AMCU, and for us. All of us, as partners, must intensify our cooperation and jointly respond to challenges in this area,” said the Chairman the Lithuanian Competition Council and the project Leader from the European partners, Šarūnas Keserauskas.

At the same time, Policy Officer on Competition, State aid, SOEs and Privatizations of the EU Delegation to Ukraine, Panagiotis Stamoulis, noted that partners are ready to continue supporting Ukraine in the process of bringing legislation to EU standards.

During the meeting, the participants listened to the report on the implementation of the EU Twinning project for the past period and approved the plan for the next one.

For reference: The EU Twinning project “Support to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine in the further approximation of legal, procedural and case enforcement practices with EU antitrust and merger control practices” started in May of last year and is designed for two years. Its goal is to bring the work of the AMCU closer to the best European standards of competition protection. The project is financed by the EU with the support of the Competition Council of Lithuania, the Federal Ministry of Economy and Energy of Germany and the Competition Council of Romania.