“Stronger Together” is the motto of the EU Public Finance Management Support Programme for Ukraine (EU4PFM), with which its partners’ meeting was opened on 24 October 2022 in Vilnius. This was the first partner meeting in person since the war started.
The Central Project Management Agency (CPMA) together with EU4PFM project team gathered the partners from the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, the State Customs Service of Ukraine, the State Tax Service of Ukraine, the European Delegation to Ukraine, and representatives of other international projects working in PFM domain.
Director of CPMA Lidija Kašubienė delivered the welcome address and stressed the importance of this special occasion. “This is a special occasion to finally meet in person after the outbreak of the war against Ukraine. The invasion of the Russian army in Ukraine has changed the world overnight. From day one of this war, our hearts and minds have been with Ukrainians, and we have been looking for ways we can help. I am glad that here, in a safe environment, our project team can evaluate the achieved results and agree on what we still need to do,” Lidija Kašubienė said.
In the opening speech, Xavier Camus, Head of Operations Section 1 “Good Governance and Democratization” of the European Delegation to Ukraine paid tribute to the Ukrainian defenders, Ukrainian resilience and expressed the EU’s commitment to further reformation processes in Ukraine. Xavier Camus mentioned that this visit is a possibility to share mutual experiences and expectations on the EU accession process. “Ukraine received Candidate status in June that opens perspectives for the reforms that the EU4PFM programme supports. Therewith, the reconstruction process of Ukraine has to be aligned with further reforms to pay the pass to the EU membership,” Xavier Camus noted.
EU4PFM Team Leader Jurgita Domeikienė welcomed participants and provided them with a glimpse of the expectations of the conference. “The breakout of the war in Ukraine has dimmed prospects for growth and increased uncertainty, but despite of this we are not only continuing earlier started activities, but launching new ones, and even managing to organize offline meetings. Yes, sometimes it could seem unbelievable, but each day Ukrainian people do unbelievable things and show immense courage – they are a true inspiration for all of us,” added Jurgita Domeikienė.
During the meeting, the progress of project implementation and the needs for further support to Ukraine were discussed. The meeting was focused on specific topics, such as customs and tax administration and budget planning. During the visit, the guests had the unique opportunity to meet with the heads of the relevant institutions in Lithuania, who shared the practices and experiences implemented in our country.
The visit was organised by the CPMA, which is responsible for the implementation of the three components of the EU4PFM programme (worth €37 million) related to the modernisation of budgetary processes, the development of a modern, efficient and equitable tax collection system and the strengthening of the organisational capacity of the public finance institutions in Ukraine, in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania, the Customs Department and the State Tax Inspectorate of Lithuania. The programme has a total budget of €50.5 million, of which €0.5 million has been provided by Lithuania.
