Development of fast logistics in the western direction is an important component of Ukraine’s movement towards the EU: Denys Shmyhal

Ukraine’s path to the European Union is unchanged, and an important part of it is the development of fast logistics in the western direction. This was stated by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at a Government session on 22 August.

According to the Prime Minister, the Government has set three key tasks to improve the functioning of the Ukrainian-European border.

“The first is the development of border infrastructure. In particular, a network of road border crossings. There are currently 21 of them on the border with the EU. Three of them were opened during the full-scale war. We plan to create nine more and modernise thirteen,” said Denys Shmyhal.

According to the Head of Government, most of the work will be carried out on the border with Poland. It has been agreed that Ukraine will receive a concessional loan of EUR 160 million from Polish partners to upgrade roads, checkpoints and purchase scanners.

“Last week, during the government delegation’s visit to Bucharest, we also agreed with Romania that we will jointly develop access roads and railway infrastructure and work towards simplifying border control,” the Prime Minister added.

Denys Shmyhal stressed that the Romanian direction was a key one for Ukrainian exports. There are agreements with the Romanian side on transshipment of Ukrainian products in Romanian sea and river ports and on cooperation in Danube ports.

“The second is joint customs and border control with EU countries. This means that there will be one checkpoint where representatives of both countries will work. This will help us achieve greater integration into the European space, speed up logistics and minimise corruption. We are running a pilot project on the Polish-Ukrainian border. During my visit to Bucharest, Ukraine made a corresponding proposal to Romania,” the Prime Minister said.

The third task, according to the Prime Minister, is to continue the implementation of the “customs visa-free regime” with the EU countries. During the ten months of the regime, 15,000 transit declarations have already been issued in both directions: “Now we have the task of upgrading customs to new software to meet European standards.”

IC UAC according to the Communications Department of the Secretariat of the CMU