European Business Association is always glad to hear back from EBA members and partners. Your feedback is very important to us. We invite you to add your own testimonial by sending us your letter at office@eba.com.ua.

     1. Trond Moe, (Country Manager, Telenor Group Ukraine)

The EBA visit to EU institutions in Brussels proved to highly interesting and useful for us. Some of the main takeaways that I think the EBA members should be aware of is:

The EBA staff had put together a fantastic program and I was very delighted to see that we were received so well and prepared in all our meetings. Our delegation consisted of board members, committee chairmen and EBA staff, and our wide participation secured that we had expert knowledge and information from almost all business sectors of Ukraine. On the EU side, we met with the highest representatives in the Commission, the Council and the EU Parliament - the three pillars of the European Union.

EBA is very respected and known in Brussels and EBA is considered an invaluable partner in EU-Ukraine relationship issues. For example, we had a very long and useful meeting with the EU team currently negotiating the FTA (free trade agreement) with Ukraine. Our excellent "Position Paper" was discussed in detail, and I was happy to see that the whole EU delegation had read our paper carefully and had many questions and issues that they wanted to explore in more detail.

Although several high EU officials and representatives did not hide their disappointment and fatigue about the current Ukrainian political instability, it was stressed that Ukraine is definitely a European country, with full rights to sometime become a member of the EU. Although the membership question is not on the table at the moment, my impression was that the EU is willing to discuss this, but first Ukraine must "stop talking" and actually demonstrate that it can implement actual reforms and improvements. It was clearly stated in our concluding meeting with EU Commissioner for External Relations, Ms Benita Ferrero-Waldner, that the highest priority among the reforms the EU expects to see in Ukraine is in the judicial area. An improvement in the Rule of Law is the basis for everything else.

I want to express my gratitude to the EBA staff for putting in so much time and arranging such an excellent program. Considering that the whole trip only took two days, the efficiency was also great, which was appreciated among the business people participating in the program.

     2.  Marek Luczack (CEO, Syngenta)

Very good visit to Brussels. Not all the meeting added much value but those with Pirkka Tapiola, Joseph Daul, the DG Trade as well as the short one with Benita Ferrero-Waldner certainly did. I have a much better view on importance of Ukraine to EU and all initiatives in place. It was very impressive to see how much some people in Brussels know about the country. At the same very direct but honest feedback relative to the political situation in Ukraine as seen by top officials from European Commission and the European Parliament, came not as expected but helped understanding how critical the current status is and what may happen in the next couple of months.

Finally, it was great pleasure to be there with the more “experienced” expat colleagues as well as with the very energetic, dedicated and professionals, both from different companies and the EBA.

     3. Olga Balytska (Senior Associate, DLA Piper Ukraine)

First of all let me thank you for giving us this opportunity to voice the main achievements/problems that the business faces in Ukraine directly to EU authorities. I would also like to specifically appreciate the great role played during such meetings by our colleagues from EU states, which had shown a particular interest and commitment to improve the investment climate in Ukraine.

I would like to stress that the main importance of the mission which allowed establishing direct contact and productive negotiations, that we had both with the EU decision makers and the staff responsible for development of EU policy and drafting of the documents to be later approved and implemented at the higher level. Such face-to-face discussions allowed us to better explain the peculiarities of the current business environment in Ukraine, to clarify certain issues, that were not completely clear for EU authorities, and to answer their questions. It was decided, that EU will provide possible and reasonable assistance in resolving of the existing problems and obstacles for doing business in Ukraine, in particular, by emphasizing certain issues to the Ukrainian official authorities and by incorporating necessary directions in the bilateral agreements. While implementing the positive changes, we agreed than further contacts between responsible EU authorities and appropriate EBA representatives will be carried out in a due course in order to ensure the efficiency of such policy and to monitor its results. Thus, the first results of our mission could be seen already this week at the EU/Ukraine official meetings in Kiev.

At the same time, thanks to the fact that a wide range of representatives of different EU authorities participated in our meetings, we could form quite objective impression of the general views of EU officials on the current economical and political situation in Ukraine as well as prospective for EU integration. We did outline the key points to be resolved in order to succeed with integration process and will further proceed with their implementation in Ukraine.

Summarizing the aforementioned, I would like to stress that currently Ukraine is in process of development of the proper business environment. In this regard, the experience of the European countries, which already passed such development process and succeeds with its results, is essential for our country. Thus, the missions, like we had with EBA, are of primary importance in order to understand and to use such European experience and to successfully implement it in our country. I believe, that the EBA relationships with EU, regularly summarized and supported by the missions, like we recently had, in certain aspects are definitely not less important that the negotiations on the governmental level, as they are focused on the business environment rather then political aspects. I believe that we should make such visits at least twice a year (for wide groups) and establish regular contacts for separate sectors of activity. You can always rely on my support and EBA Real Estate Committee in this regard.

     4.  Sviatoslav Belei (Senior Lawyer/Legal & EA Department, Danone Ukraine)

Please, let me verify our respect and appreciation for your efforts for the lobbing of the Governmental and Tax authorities Instructions (#757 and 838) voiding. These absolutely non rational and unlawful issues were serious risk for international business in Ukraine and it is really great news about the voiding of this issues.

So we are so grateful and exited for the work done by your team and we are glad to work with you.