U-LEAD with Europe organised an info session for Ukrainian municipalities to explain the promising areas of support that may be available under the IPARD-III Programme to local self-government officials. Maksym Chopei, Adviser at the Regional Office of U-LEAD in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast and member of U-LEAD’s Working Group on Rural Development, told more about this:
“One of the goals of the event was to clearly outline the powers of local self-government in rural development and to inspire municipal officials to implement effective steps. IPARD-III is a tool that enables the candidate countries for EU membership to prepare for the implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy, which is one of the most important and costly directions in the EU.”
During her speech, the speaker of the event, U-LEAD expert Tetiana Kharchenko, emphasised that with Ukraine’s acquisition of the status of a candidate for membership of the European Union, all aspects of politics and legislation should be promptly brought closer to EU policies, rules and regulations:
“As for rural development, the first reform, which is to be implemented by the end of 2024, is the Harmonisation of the institutional framework for agricultural and rural development policies with the EU policies.”
This reform has the following objectives:
- Development of strategic priorities in the sector and their subsequent implementation;
- Preparation for the implementation of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy;
- Additional institutional reforms and implementation of EU-approved payment mechanisms.
According to Tetiana Kharchenko, this reform should result in the adoption of the Strategy for the Development of Agriculture and Rural Territories until 2030. Its strategic vectors include the adaptation of the Ukrainian policy for the pre-accession development of agriculture and rural areas, acceleration of the harmonisation of the legal framework in the field of agriculture and sanitary and phytosanitary control with EU standards, promotion of the development of small producers and rural municipalities, etc.
“The presented directions indicate a clear implementation of the basic principles and financial mechanisms of support of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy into the national strategic framework for rural development,” the expert said.
Having acquired the status of a candidate for EU membership, Ukraine began to build a framework for the use of the IPARD tool. This support tool is a component of the IPA financial support programme, which was launched in 2007. Through this programme, the European Commission provides candidate countries with support in the form of grants, investments and technical assistance on their path to EU membership. The third phase of the programme is currently being implemented (2021–2027). U-LEAD expert Svitlana Lukash spoke about this at the event:
“As for the general goal of implementing IPARD, it is support for the development of rural areas and a sustainable agricultural sector with an emphasis on the CAP principles.”
She stressed that certain objectives regarding rural development were to be met in the current period of implementation of IPARD. These objectives include:
- Increasing the competitiveness of the agri-food sector in accordance with the EU standards (veterinary, food safety and phytosanitary);
- Increasing the performance and sustainability of production on farms to ensure a better response to public demands;
- Promotion of business development, employment in rural areas;
- Improving the positions of farmers in the value chain and involving young farmers in agriculture;
- Promotion of mitigating the effects of climate change and adaptation to them, sustainable management of natural resources and environmental protection;
- Improvement of community development and social capital in rural areas, building modern public administration to develop agriculture and rural areas in accordance with the principles of good governance.
“13 tasks have been developed for these directions, and of those, the candidate country can choose only eight. They should be selected at the stage of building the framework agreement,” said Svitlana Lukash.