During the international scientific conference ‘Europeanization’ of third countries legal orders – implementation of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, which was held in the Institute of International Relations of Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University, with the support of the Association4U, participants had the opportunity to exchange ideas with Ukrainian and international experts, both researchers and practitioners on legal perspectives and challenges arising within the scope of the implementation process of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement and on how to address these challenges.

On 30-31 May 2017 a two-day in-service training on Legal Approximation and Soft Skills for civil servants was conducted by the training team of the EU-funded project “Association 4U” in the Ministry of Ecology.

On March 29, 2017 Mr. Jan Truszczynski, ex-Director General for Education and Culture, European Commission (currently- expert of the EU-funded “Association4U” project) held a workshop “Education and Culture in the EU” for senior officials from the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. The meeting was moderated by the senior training fellow Ms.Svitlana Batsyukova.

The level of consciousness of Ukrainians has greatly increased during the last few years. Citizens are willing to take responsibility for the words and actions and to participate in policy that could certainly be useful for Ministries. The efficiency of public consultations depends not only on public understanding and support of public policy, but often on the quality of decisions on important issues of public life. Due to this important role of consultations Associate Communication Fellow of the project Association4U Lidia Yershykhina has conducted the training for the Line Ministries to explain mechanisms of improving the consultation process within the law. 

Every team of all the Ministries requires such a basic but important document as brief. In order good writing and effective communication we need to follow certain rules - that were said by Greek short-term expert Yiannis Kaminis.

Before writing the brief, you should remember and take into account points of view and positions of our Leaders. Once you have written the brief - send it to Directors for approval. If changes need to be made, get it revised until it is approved! When you have reached agreement you are free to go ahead with creative development.

On March 10, the first training session for Civil Servants entitled “ABC of the European Union” was held, aiming at improving and strengthening the competencies of civil servants needed for the effective implementation of duties associated with implementation of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement.

The training was conducted by Lyudmyla Chernyaha, Senior Training Fellow of ‘Association 4U’ project. 23 Civil Servants from the Ministry of Social Policy, State Service on Labour, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Education and Science were active participants in the session.

To answer these questions of the implementation of the Association Agreement in the light of the BREXIT and navigate through challenges, the EU funded Project “Support for the implementation of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement - Association4U” co-organized the International Workshop “Challenges before and after the ratification of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement: Impact of the Dutch Referendum, the BREXIT and future elections in the EU Member States” together with Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence (based at the National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (NaUKMA).

In addition to training on international best practices of building communications Association4U project becomes a platform where representatives of the press services of line ministries can exchange experiences on the use of communications tools in Ukraine. The first of their experience building relationships with stakeholders shared with colleagues the spokesperson of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) Olga Grigoryan.