Agriculture and rural development

02/05/2019 10:21

Main content and commitments of Ukraine

Chapter 17 “Agriculture and Rural Development”, Section V “Economic and Sector Cooperation” of the Association Agreement specifies that Ukraine and the EU intend to cooperate to promote the development of agriculture and rural areas, in particular by means of gradual convergence of relevant policies and legislation, as well as the gradual convergence of national regulation in accordance with EU regulations and standards, which are outlined in Annex XXXVII of the Agreement.

This cooperation between the Parties in the field of agriculture and the development of agrarian regions covers the following areas:

  • promoting mutual understanding of agrarian policy and policy of agrarian regions development;
  • improving administrative capacity at the central and local levels in terms of planning, evaluation and implementation of the aforementioned policies;
  • promoting the development of modern and sustainable agricultural production, with the environment and the welfare of wildlife taken into account, including the spread of the use of organic production methods and biotechnologies, in particular through the introduction of best practices in these areas;
  • exchange of knowledge and best practices in the field of agrarian development policy with a view to promoting the economic growth of rural communities;
  • increasing the competitiveness of the agricultural sector, the efficiency and transparency of markets, as well as investment conditions;
  • dissemination of knowledge through training and information-sharing activities;
  • promoting innovation through research and stimulation of the expansion of services to agricultural producers;
  • promoting harmonization in terms of the matters considered within the framework of international organizations;
  • exchange of best practices in terms of support mechanisms for agricultural policies and agrarian regions;
  • implementation of quality policy for agricultural products in the field of standardization, production requirements and quality programmes.

Association bodies

The Subcommittee on Freedom, Security and Justice and Cluster 5 of Sub-Committee on Economic and Other Sector Cooperation.

Responsible bodies in Ukraine

Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine.

Expected results

  • Greater opportunities for companies in the context of cooperation and sharing of knowledge, experience and technology;
  • Adapting the standards of agricultural products and infrastructure of agricultural markets and increasing the access of Ukrainian agrarian companies' products to the EU market;
  • Improvement of agrarian products quality by means of higher environmental standards for their production;
  • Growth of employment and welfare for local communities in the country's agrarian regions;
  • Modernization of the state agrarian policy in accordance with the requirements of EU legislation;
  • Development of standards and infrastructure of the agricultural market.

The state of adaptation of Ukrainian legislation and cooperation with the EU

The Government of Ukraine has approved:

- detailed rules for the production of organic products (raw materials) for beekeeping (Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of 23 March 2016 No. 208)

- detailed rules for the production of organic products (raw materials) of animal origin (Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of March 30, 2016 No. 241)

- detailed rules for the production of organic products (raw materials) of plant origin (Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on August 31, 2016 № 587).

- requirements for products with cocoa and chocolate, aimed at the implementation of Directive No. 2000/36/EU of 23 June 2000 (Order of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy of April 13, 2016 No. 157).

  • Amendments have been made to the procedure for using the funds provided for by the state budget for the support of farms (Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of September 8, 2016 No. 609), which improve the mechanism for using funds aimed at financial support of farms that are competition winners.
  • The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved and submitted for consideration of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine the draft Law of Ukraine “On Stimulating the Development of the Agro-Industrial Complex of Ukraine”. The law regulates relations in terms of the implementation of the state policy for the the agro-industrial complex development of Ukraine, stimulating the production of agricultural products, developing and balancing the agrarian market, creating favourable conditions for subjects of various management forms (including small agricultural producers) in agriculture and food security, and corresponds to the requirements of EU legislation.
  • Priorities for the development of rural areas up to 2025 have been determined, as well as the approval of normative legal acts that will ensure the introduction of support for individual housing construction in the countryside, as well as an increase in the level of attractiveness of living in the countryside and the creation of conditions for the acquisition of private housing by young specialists (Regulation of the Cabinet of Ministers of July 19, 2017 No. 489-р “On the approval of the action plan for the implementation of the Concept of the Development of Rural Territories”).
  • The system of electronic VAT administration has been improved to ensure its effective functioning on an ongoing basis for agricultural producers (Law of 16 July 2015 No. 643-VIII).
  • The Nomenclature of agricultural products has been developed, which corresponds to the categories of the statistical classification of products (SCP-2011) and is analogous to the Classification of Products according to the types of economic activity of the EU (Statistical Classification of Products according to their Activities of the European Community - CPA2008).

The establishment of methodological and practical bases for the introduction into the national statistical practice of typology of agricultural enterprises has been started.

The orders of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine to approximate statistical practice with EU norms have been developed and approved.