On February 21, 2023, in the online mode the 12th Steering Committee meeting for the Twinning Project for the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (hereinafter – AMCU) “Support to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine in further approximation of legal, procedural and case enforcement practices with EU antitrust and merger control practices” (hereinafter – Project), which is being implemented jointly by a consortium of EU Member States, namely Lithuania, Germany and Romania took place.
The aim of the Twinning Project is to increase the effectiveness, transparency and consistency of the antitrust policy in Ukraine on the basis of closer alignment of national antitrust legislation to the legislation of EU Member States in accordance with the requirements of the Association Agreement between European Union and Ukraine.
Šarūnas Keserauskas, MS Project leader, delivered a welcoming address to the participants of the meeting and presented the agenda.
In turn, Olga Pishchanska, BC Project Leader, welcomed the participants of the meeting and expressed gratitude to the partners for effective cooperation. Olha Pishchanska focused attention on key achievements of the last reporting period, in particular, emphasized the performance indicators under the draft Law No. 5431.
For its part, Šarūnas Pajarskas, RTA, presented the practical results of the Project implementation which were achieved during the implementation period. In particular, the Project implementation, which lasted about 787 working days, involved at least 65 experts: 28 – from Germany, 23 – from Romania, and 14 – from Lithuania. 16 trainings on competition policy (jointly with USAID-FTC), 6 trainings on quantitative methods in economic analysis, 4 trainings on economic issues and 35 consultations on particular questions identified in investigations, court cases, or market studies were held within the framework of the Project. In addition, the Project partners provided 9 lectures to university students jointly with USAID-FTC program. Šarūnas Pajarskas directly outlined the main achievements in accordance with the legislative changes, namely, presented 2 stages of preparation and implementation of the draft Law No. 5431 and relevant bylaws.
Furthermore, Olha Nechytailo, BC Component 1 leader, thanked for the fruitful cooperation and emphasized the importance of further work within the framework of the mentioned draft Law.
The participants of the meeting expressed their gratitude and support for the Project implementation, focusing on the main achievements and further directions of activity of the AMCU.
The meeting was attended by Project experts, representatives of the European Union Delegation to Ukraine and AMCU.
On behalf of the Center for Adaptation of the Civil Service to the Standards of the European Union Anatolii Sopilka, Head of the Project Management Department and Olena Honcharuk, Senior Consultant of the Twinning Coordination Division of the Unit of Twinning Programme Administration Office activities ensuring took part in the meeting.
For reference: according to the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ukraine “On Approval of the Procedure for Initiation, Preparation and Implementation of the Twinning Projects” as of 11 October, 2016 No 700 the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service coordinates the implementation of the institution building instrument of the European Union Twinning in Ukraine. Furthermore, in accordance with relevant legal acts the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service is the coordinator of institution building instrument TAIEX implementation in Ukraine. In order to provide effective coordination of Twinning and TAIEX the Twinning Program Administration Office in Ukraine was established, its functions are performed by the Center for Adaptation of the Civil Service to the Standards of the European Union.
