Our teams in Geneva have worked around the clock to finalise the last technical issues, and we are now in a position to have a consensus in the WTO on Ukrainian accession at the next General Council on 5.2.2008.

The European Commission would like to thank the WTO Secretariat for its good work under time pressure.

Kyiv, 28 January 2008

The project’s two main outputs - the Teacher Training Guide and Teacher’s Resource Manual – will be presented at the conference.

The conference format will be interactive: there will be short presentations of the project’s key activities and results, as well as a final newsletter with component and activity reports and other project papers. However, the main focus will be on exploring the project’s impact and discussing the future challenges for civic education in Ukraine. There will be presentations by students, current citizens of Ukraine and the main intended beneficiaries of the project. The project will present its final recommendations for discussion.

end

For further information on the project please contact

David Royle, International Team Leader, Cambridge Education, Ukraine Civic Education Project

Tel: (+380-44) 4665467; 2386389; 5685780; Fax: (+380-44) 2308102 E-mail: David.Royle@ced.kiev.ua

The Information Day on the Media activities: Maximising EU Presence in the ENP Region and ENPI Beneficiary Countries tender took place on January 22 at the Delegation of the European Commission in Kyiv. Around 70 representatives of potential applicants including media outlets, PR agencies, and NGOs from both Ukraine and Belarus attended the event. The participants received an detailed overview of ENP and the media programme and asked over 20 questions related to this €10 mln tender.

All Information Day materials will be posted on the Delegation's and TBO websites. The questions and answers will be placed on the the EuropeAid's website http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/cgi/frame12.pl (reference number 125907) by 4 February 2008.

Kyiv, 23 January 2008

Teacher’s Resource Manual

The Manual was developed by the project’s Curriculum Development working group in collaboration with other national and international experts; other project working groups made contributions to the Guide from their areas of expertise The development process started with an analysis of national normative documents, based on which the working group developed a table of civic competencies, detailing the target knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that students should acquire. The working group then arranged a series of workshops in each subject area to develop draft materials for the Manual, based on existing programmes of study and the competencies table. A further series of feedback workshops were held to discuss and improve the draft materials. Finally, a number of independent academic reviewers were also used to evaluate the materials.

Teacher Training Guide

The Guide was developed as part of the project’s Teacher Training component by the component working group and other national and international teacher development experts. Other project working groups also made significant contributions to the Guide from their areas of expertise. The development process included training workshops for In-service Teacher Training Institute methodologists (ITTIs) and pedagogical university lecturers, piloting in the project’s pilot oblasts as well as in non-pilot oblasts in ITTIs and pedagogical universities. Feedback workshops were held to discuss the results of piloting and improve the materials. Finally, a number of independent academic reviewers were also used to evaluate the materials.

For further information on the project please contact

David Royle, International Team Leader, Cambridge Education, Ukraine Civic Education Project

Tel: (+380-44) 4665467; 2386389; 5685780; Fax: (+380-44) 2308102 E-mail: David.Royle@ced.kiev.ua

Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner met yesterday with the new Ukrainian Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ohryzko. The meeting focussed on the strengthening of the relationship between the European Union and Ukraine and next steps in co-operation between the European Commission and the new government.

Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner expressed her hope that the new Ukrainian government would pursue the political, constitutional and economic reforms with increased energy and that all the main political actors in Ukraine would make efforts to stabilise the country's political situation.

Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner said: "The European Commission is looking forward to working with the new government. Through our Joint Action Plan we have managed to produce tangible results for Ukrainian citizens. Negotiations for a new Enhanced Agreement to extend the scope of our relationship are advancing well. In this context I welcome the progress this week with regard to Ukraine accession to WTO bringing us a step closer to starting talks on a Free Trade Agreement."

Official information of the European Commission is available at any time at http://europa.eu/rapid/

Brussels

17 January 2008

Agreement clears path for Ukrainian WTO accession, EU-Ukraine FTA

The European Union and Ukraine resolved yesterday the final outstanding issues in their discussions on Ukraine's accession to the WTO. At a meeting in London, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Hryhoriy Nemyrya sealed the final terms of the agreement. The agreement clears the way for the final approval by WTO members of the terms of Ukraine's accession. Following ratification of the accession agreements, Ukraine will become the 152nd member of the WTO. The EU completed its bilateral negotiations with Ukraine on its WTO accession in 2003.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said: "This is an important day for the Ukraine. The EU has always been a firm supporter of Ukraine's WTO membership. Today's agreement clears the way for Ukraine to fully join the world trading system. This is the first step towards greater Ukrainian integration with the global economy and the European economy."

The EU completed its bilateral negotiations with the Ukraine on WTO accession in 2003. It has since then continued to work with the Ukraine in the multilateral working group that considers all applications for WTO membership on a number of issues, including guarantees concerning agreed reductions in export duties on some raw materials. The EU will now begin negotiations for a comprehensive free trade agreement with Ukraine.

Background

The EU is the Ukraine's largest trading partner and its largest market. In 2006 the EU absorbed 25% of ithe Ukraine's exports worth €8.7 billion and provided 42% of its imports worth €17.8 billion. In 2006, the European Commission proposed a new Enhanced Agreement with the Ukraine that would include the negotiation of a free trade area to strengthen the economic integration between the two economies. WTO Membership is the necessary foundation for such an agreement.

WTO membership will bring significant benefits for the Ukraine. It will provide it with guaranteed access to the markets of all other WTO members, including the EU. It creates a degree of certainty and stability in openness of the Ukrainian market that will help attract new trade and investment. It will be a highly significant step in the Ukraine's integration in the global economy.

The aim of the evaluation is to assess sustainability of the interim results achieved by the project after two years of its work, and to evaluate project’s progress in reaching its general goals and fulfilling its tasks.

The evaluation has three major objectives: to analyze progress achieved by the project; to examine whether situation in target groups is changing due to activities of the initiative; and to analyze potential internal and external risks of its forthcoming implementation to be addressed by the project team and provide recommendations to prevent these risks.

The evaluation should follow a number of key actions, including audit and report analysis, interviews with members of the project team in Kyiv and four pilot regions, interviews with participants of the project actions and representatives of the national and regional stakeholders, recommendations for the project management, and a verbal report based on the evaluation results.

The report (20-25 pages plus attachments) should be submitted in Ukrainian by March 28, 2008. The document should include a title page, a list of abbreviations, a table of contents, summary, brief information on the project, description of the evaluation methodology, evaluation results, conclusions, recommendations, and attachments.

A potential evaluator is required to have adequate qualifications and experience in project and programme evaluation and knowledge of the Ukrainian national judicial system; observe confidentiality; have analytical writing and reporting skills; be fluent in Ukrainian (good command of English is desirable).

More information about the issues to be evaluated, as well as complete tender and report requirements, are available on the project’s web-site.

A candidate needs to submit an application consisting of a letter of motivation, an evaluator's CV, a list of recent evaluations (including title, date and client), description of the proposed methodology, working schedule (including preparatory stage, fieldwork research and the work on the report) and budget.

Applications should be sent by regular mail to the following address: 30, prosp. Bazhana, apt. 8., Kyiv 02140, by February 1, 2008, 6 pm at the latest.

Based on tender results the project will sign a contract and a detailed technical task with a winner of this call for proposals.

The EU-funded project on Improving Access to Justice for Rural Population started its work in 2006 and will be implemented till 2008. The project aims to improve access to justice for rural population in Ukraine, in particular to explain how people can settle conflict situations in court, to create and support courts of arbitration and justices of the peace in selected rural regions.

For more information, please address the project’s web-page www.aj.org.ua or contact Volodymyr Kupriy, project director: tel.: 8 (044) 574-64-11, 574-64-13 ; e-mail: kupriy@ccc.kiev.ua.

January 8, 2008

The Conference was held following the decisions of the first Steering Committee meeting in November 2007 in Brussels. The goal of the event was to inform the various stakeholders about the commencement of the Project and the activities to be implemented in Ukraine.

The Project is focused on the improvement of regional co-operation and improvement of the Convention on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution (the Bucharest Convention), development and submission of amendments for review of the Convention Parties representatives.

According to the results of the first Steering Committee meeting the Project activities are allocated in the following way:

§ the pilot project on Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) will be implemented in Georgia

§ an inter-laboratory comparison exercise and training on water monitoring will take place in Moldova

§ development of the policy document on Marine Reserves and their establishment will be held in Ukraine. Following the proposal of the Ministry of Environmental Protection in Ukraine the establishment of Marine Reserves will take place in Small Field of Phyllophora in Karkinitsky Bay, lying offshore between western Crimea and Kherson Oblast.

Also in Ukraine there will be the development of the ICZM National Strategy and the drafting of two regulations: Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on Approval of the Regulations on Designing Coastal Zoning Systems Specifying Territories Appropriate for Different Economic Activities; and Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on Approval of the Regulations on the System of Wetland Natural Resource Use within Offshore Water, Sea and River Estuaries

While developing the Marine Reserves policy document special attention should be paid to the future accession of the EU to the Bucharest Convention bearing in mind that Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU in January 2007, and that Turkey is a candidate country. More than half of the maritime area of the Bucharest Convention will soon be covered by EU legislation and policies such as the EU Marine Strategy, requiring more involvement of the EU in the region. The improved Bucharest Convention as an important political document that will provide fostering of the Black Sea synergy.

For more detailed information please visit the website of the Project: http://ecbsea.org