On February 22, 2023, the Lithuanian, German and Romanian authorities partnering under the EU Twinning project “Legal and Enforcement Support to the Anti-monopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU)” met to discuss the results that they have achieved during the project implementation. Over 30 representatives of relevant authorities of Ukraine, including the AMCU as the main beneficiary, high-level decision makers, EU representatives and other stakeholders attended the final online event of this international project.
Throughout the project, the experts of the Competition Council of the Republic of Lithuania together with their colleagues from German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, the Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt), as well as the Romanian Competition Council, shared the best European practices of the antitrust enforcement, merger control and competition advocacy with the AMCU, strengthened the culture of competition in Ukraine. During 800 working hours, an international team of experts conducted trainings and seminars for Ukrainian specialists, shared their professional experience, working practices and insights, assisted the AMCU in further approximation of local competition law and procedures with EU competition rules. 28 experts from Germany, 23 from Romania, and 14 from Lithuania were actually involved in project’s missions.
An international project started in May 2020 and continued despite the russia’s war against Ukraine. The main project partner is the Competition Council, the Central Project Management Agency (CPMA) ensured the overall project administrative and financial management.
Over the last almost three years, nearly 2.000 employees of the AMCU participated in trainings, 35 consultations in specific cases were held, two sets of draft amendments to the Law on Competition of Ukraine were prepared, and 21 secondary legal acts were proposed, including various guidelines and guidance documents. In addition, the procedures applied by the AMCU for implementing competition law were improved to enrich the quality of the AMCU’s decisions. The AMCU improved its PR and competition advocacy efforts with both businesses and the Ukrainian society at large aiming to change their false perceptions of the competition legislation and the AMCU’s functions. Also, AMCU’s staff capacity for public outreach and advocacy was improved.
Olha Pishchanska, head of the AMCU, was pleased that the first set of draft amendments to the Law on Competition prepared together with international partners had already been submitted to the Ukrainian Parliament for consideration. Once the draft and other secondary legal acts are adopted, the AMCU will be able to apply the basic principles and standards used by other EU competition institutions in its work and to finally prepare the second set of draft amendments to the Law on Competition for submission before the Parliament.
Šarūnas Keserauskas, Chairman of the Konkurencijos taryba, the Twinning project leader, also emphasised the importance of the competition rules in general, because they form the basis for the economic constitution of any country and the EU. “We are happy with the results we have achieved but we have to keep an eye on the future – there are still many things to do. Despite the fact that the project ends, international partners stand ready to continue providing Ukraine with full assistance”, said Š. Keserauskas.
The Twinning project was funded by the European Union with a contribution of EUR 1.2 million.
