EU Ambassador to Ukraine, Katarína Mathernová, attended the 7th Ukrainian Women’s Congress. The joint panel discussion on gender equality and women’s rights featured Mathernová, together with Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Olha Stefanishyna.

Mathernová believes that the attention paid to gender equality remains high in Ukraine, despite the Russia’s full-scale war.

Some issues on the agenda in Ukraine are on par with the trends in gender-advanced countries, emphasised Ms Mathernová, for example in terms of equal pay.

Olga Stefanishyna assured that the government has a clear vision of what needs to be done to ensure gender equality and women’s rights.

Nadiia Andrukhova owned a bakery in Severodonetsk, which she lost after city was occupied. Thanks to a grant provided by the EU4Business project, she was able to restart her business in Bucha, where she moved with her family.

Her son Yevhen says they used the EU grant to buy the oven and a proofing chamber, which helped launch the bakery. Now, Dim Boulangerie is back to baking fresh bread, croissants, rolls and other delicious products.

This is one of the stories the readers and audience were told by journalists who attended a press tour to Buch and Zhytomyr, organised by the CEU4U project as part of the ‘Together, We Are Resilient. Together, We are Europe’ campaign. The objective of the campaign is to raise awareness of the EU’s support for business and the opportunities offered to Ukrainian SMEs.

During the press tour, journalists communicated with businessmen, government representatives, experts, and diplomats. In addition to Dim Boulangerie bakery in Bucha, they visited Diia Business Centre, where they learned about EU instruments of assistance for SMEs and met local businessmen who used the services and programmes of the centre.

In Zhytomyr, journalists attended a press briefing of local government representatives and participated in the regional discussion on the results and prospects of EU support for SMEs in the context of reconstruction and strengthening of local municipalities.

European SME Week took place in Ukraine on 14–20 November. It was a great opportunity for discussing the role of small and medium enterprises, and the importance of their development.

On the occasion of the European SME Week, as part of the campaign ‘Together, We Are Resilient. Together, We Are Europe’, the EU4U project supported three broadcasts on NV Radio, which discussed the importance of SMEs for the country’s economy and their support from the EU.

A series of videos were also published on how the EU supports Ukrainian small and medium enterprises with funding, consultations, training, and help to enter the EU market.

The EU is also actively working with various Ukrainian state and non-governmental institutions supporting SMEs. The Entrepreneurship and Export Promotion Office is one of them.

The EU supports the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs with analysing Ukrainian law and harmonising it with the EU standards, with maximum benefits for Ukrainian businesses, and faster adjustment of SMEs to European rules.

The programme was launched at the beginning of 2023, and in the time since, Ukrainians have exchanged more than 21 million bulbs. The exchange is continuing with the aim of achieving an ambitious goal: according to preliminary estimates, exchanging another 18 million LED bulbs will save up to 1,000 MW of electricity.

To exchange additional LED bulbs, pensioners visiting Ukrposhta branches must have a passport, tax ID, pension certificate, and a valid phone number with them. Retired people will be able to exchange additional energy-saving bulbs for free, as long as LEDs are available. It is important to note that this time, pensioners do not need to immediately bring old bulbs for exchange – they have the opportunity to hand them into any Ukrposhta outlet within a month from the time that they receive five additional LED light bulbs.

At the same time, the light bulb exchange programme continues for individuals and legal entities that have not yet benefitted from the opportunity to replace their outdated incandescent bulbs with energy-saving ones. Citizens can exchange up to five incandescent bulbs for the same number of LEDs at Ukrposhta outlets. The exchange rules for legal entities have not changed either. The programme operates in 23 major regional cities and 120 district-level municipalities across Ukraine.

Supporting families who have just lost their loved ones in the war is a difficult mission that is being carried out by the non- governmental organisation ‘Association of Mothers and Wives of Ukraine’s Defenders’. The organisation has been involved in this for years, and recently, thanks to a grant from the EU4CSOs Emergency Actions programme. Within the framework of the project, the organisation provides psychological and humanitarian assistance to the families of the fallen Ukrainian soldiers, and also supports the women working with them.

Olena Maksymenko heads the affiliated office of the association in the Zhytomyr Oblast. Her son went to war in 2014 and was killed in 2016.

This method of supporting the families of the recently deceased is a distinctive feature of the organisation’s work, which is also used in the current project. The association has ‘women-leaders’ who have lost their son or husband, but have already emerged from the crisis and are ready to help others: share their experience, advise on document processing, and provide psychological assistance in a ‘family-to-family’ format. However, they themselves often need support, because they also experience the pain and grief together with others.

As of the end of November, about 30 women-leaders have received psychological support. In turn, when working with the families of the deceased, they refer to professional psychologists, when they see that ‘family-to-family’ help is not enough for mothers, wives or children of the deceased. The project has already provided such support to 10 families.

The other area of activity is humanitarian assistance. Food certificates have been given to 185 families. Representatives of the association say that this kind of support is extremely important in the six months after the loss of a loved one.

Within the framework of the humanitarian component, the project also supported 22 children from the most vulnerable families from the Mykolaiv, Khmelnytskiy and Zhytomyr regions by providing them with warm clothes and shoes for the winter.

In November, modern medical equipment for the gynaecology department was delivered to the Primary Health Care Centre in Shostka, Sumy Oblast. This is the latest shipment of assistance provided to the municipality under the EU-funded ‘Strong Regions – Special Support Programme for Ukraine’.

A portable diagnostic ultrasound machine, a digital video colposcope, and an examination table are just some of the equipment that will allow doctors to work more efficiently and provide patients with greater comfort and care.

EU-funded ‘Strong Regions’ programme has been helping the Shostka municipality for almost two years.

In addition to healthcare, the community is working with the EU-funded ‘Strong Regions’ programme to improve the social sphere and the provision of administrative services. Electric bicycles for social workers, computer equipment for the Social Protection Department and the Administrative Services Centre, and a new website for the Administrative Services Centre are some of the results of the cooperation that the residents of the municipalities are already benefitting from.

The ‘Strong Regions – Special Support Programme for Ukraine’ is co-funded by the European Union and the German Government. It is implemented by German Federal company Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

Oleksandr notes that the programme is likely to increase the number of partner municipalities next year.

On 15 December, the new Law of Ukraine ‘On Administrative Procedure’ enters into force. The EU4PAR project funded by the European Union is actively helping the Ukrainian government with the preparations. Specifically, public servants from various institutions continue their intensive training on how to work under new rules. In November and December 2023, nearly 500 employees of the Pension Fund are going through the training. The objective is to give them an understanding of the new general administrative procedure and its impact on the operation of the institution.

This is important because citizens acquire new rights in their interaction with public authorities: the right to be heard, to correct an application, to familiarise themselves with the case materials, etc. For civil servants, a requirement is provided to give reasoning to negative decisions in a comprehensible way and indicate the possibilities of appeal. Also, among the important innovations is that a negative decision takes effect only after the person has been notified thereof.

Ruslana Hoshchytska, Head of the Control and Inspection Department of the Main Department of the Pension Fund of Ukraine in the Zhytomyr region, was one of the public servants to pass the training organised by EU4PAR.

Lyudmyla Kozakova, head of the department for monitoring the correctness of pension assignment at the Main Department of the Ukraine Pension Fund in the Dnipropetrovsk region, shared that she found the topic of requirements for an administrative act useful: its form, content, and the presence of all components, including the introductory, reasoning, and resolution parts. In the opinion of Svitlana Sharmazan, head of the department for considering appeals of the citizen service department of the Main Department of the Ukraine Pension Fund in the Vinnytsia region, training courses on the practical details of applying the new law would also be useful and appropriate after the law enters into force and the relevant changes are made to the regulatory acts and by-laws.

Training for the Pension Fund employees was carried out by leading experts from various law schools in Ukraine, who passed certification in teaching the general administrative procedure at the Higher School of Public Administration, also with the support of EU4PAR.

Raising awareness about the European Union and its relations with Ukraine in an accessible way has always been a challenge for Ukrainian media, but now it is becoming an urgent need. The country is an EU candidate, and accession negotiations could start next year. In November, a training course for journalists entitled ‘EU: Talking simply about complex matters’ took place in Ivano-Frankivsk.

Over 20 participants from local media outlets from all over Ukraine learned about the peculiarities of the current relations between Ukraine and the EU, the essence of the future negotiation process, the requirements for journalistic work when creating materials about European integration, the political system of the European Union and its economic foundations, and more. Speakers included diplomats, experts, public figures, and experienced journalists.

The editorial staff of the ‘Your Voice of Prykarpattia’ website from Stariy Sambir in Lviv Oblast has not had experience of systematically covering the issue of the European Union, except for stand-alone stories about the activities of EU-funded projects in the region. So, participation in the training was extremely useful, says an editor for the publication, Mariia Kuzmin.

The future integration of Ukraine into the EU’s Single Market is one of the main goals of the membership, a significant challenge for the Ukrainian economy and business, but also an enormous opportunity for them at the same time, says Veronika Movchan, Scientific Director of the Institute for Economic Research and Political Consulting.

Veronica Movchan believes that the upcoming accession negotiations will significantly increase the role of the media in covering the relations between Ukraine and the European Union, as well as their responsibility in shaping public opinion.

Veronica Movchan believes that Ukrainian media should already actively inform Ukrainians about the principles of functioning of the EU’s Single Market, the essence and transformation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and in the future, track the legislative changes required for accession to the EU and their impact on the lives of Ukrainians.

The ‘EU: Talking simply about complex matters’ training course was organised by NGO ‘Internews Ukraine’, with support from the EU Delegation to Ukraine.

‘We decided to experiment and invite all stakeholders of the Strategic Environmental Assessment process to the discussion: industry representatives, a lawyer, and a forensic expert who develops permits. There were also public activists,’ shares Olena Shafranova, ‘Stop Poisoning Kryviy Rih’ coalition coordinator, about one of the Green Democracy School panels that took place in November.

The decision was indeed unconventional, as environmentalists and large businesses, who traditionally ‘fight’ each other, are not very inclined to take part in joint discussions. However, the experiment was a success.

Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) involves a comprehensive analysis of the likely impact of certain activities on the environment. Its introduction in Ukraine was an obligation under the Association Agreement, and its effective implementation in practice is important for Ukraine’s future accession to the EU.

However, the three-day Green Democracy School covered a wider range of very different environmental issues. It was held within the framework of the EU-funded project ‘Public Control – a Path to Environmental Protection and Improving the Quality of Life’. Speakers included judges, experts, and civil activists, MPs, and representatives of executive authorities. The impact of the war on the environment, air quality monitoring, protection of environmental human rights, and other issues were discussed.

Kapitalina Pasikova from the NGO ‘Center for Civil Society ‘Drukarnya’’ attended all three days of the school. She says that the discussion on ‘acoustic terrorism’ was particularly memorable, when the attendees discussed the impact of daily air raid alerts on the psyche of Ukrainians. Other discussions also included topics such as humanitarian mine clearance related to the environment, and public environmental monitoring. The latter was about independent monitoring of the state of the environment using various devices and applications.

The Green Democracy School was first held in May of this year, also with co-financing from the European Union.