“This trainings is a great opportunity for our employees to update their knowledge, gain new experience, undergo a quick and effective learning. After all, progress in the implementation of the Association Agreement is of great importance but it is also very important to communicate effectively everything that is happening in this crucial sphere. We are grateful to the EU Association4U Project for the opportunity for our employees to improve their qualification” — said Natalia Boiko, Deputy Minister of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine on European Integration, opening  communication training on July 6/2017.

У рамках проекту Association4U відкрито конкурс для журналістів на найкраще роз’яснення положень і висвітлення результатів впровадження Угоди про асоціацію між Україною та Європейським Союзом. Буклет про конкурс можна знайти тут: http://bit.ly/EUUAJournalistContest

Мета конкурсу:

• Підвищити обізнаність суспільства про Угоду про асоціацію/Зону вільної торгівлі між Україною та Європейським Союзом;
• Пояснити можливості та виклики, які постають в процесі імплементації Угоди перед українськими державними інститутами, громадянами, неурядовими організаціями та господарюючими суб’єктами;
• Популяризувати успішний досвід українських громадян та заохотити до активного використання можливостей, що надаються Угодою про асоціацію;
• Сприяти утвердженню європейських цінностей та європейської ідентичності України й українців.

On June 27, Association4U trainers and experts conducted a one-day training "Regulatory Impact Assessment" for the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine and subordinated organizations.

In order to effectively transfer to the civil servants of the Ministry of Infrastructure the basic theoretical and practical knowledge on the assessment of regulatory influence and how to apply it in the context of the Association Agreement and the DCFTA, the senior trainer of the Association 4U Project Lyudmila Chernyaha, the younger trainer of the Association 4U Project Tetyana Palamarchuk and Senior Sector Policy Fellow Iaroslav Petrakov organized and conducted a special day-to-day training "Regulatory Impact Assessment".

During May-June, 2017 a series of in-service trainings on soft skills development for civil servants will be conducted by the training team of the EU-funded project “Association 4U”.

Within the framework of the series of trainings six in-service trainings are planned to be held.  They will address the following topics: Organizing Effective Meetings, Negotiations and Human Resource Management. They will aim at improving such competences as: ability to develop strategies and agendas for meetings, knowledge and skills in managing human resources in public service, competences in note-taking, skills in choosing appropriate negotiation strategy etc.

On June 8 at the Agro 2017 Exhibition Association4U project together with the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine held a one-day training on "Legal, economic and political aspects of the Association Agreement and DCFTA."

Almost the entire career of Jan Truszczynski  has been related to the European integration issues. Already his M.A. thesis - back in 1972 - analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of a single currency for the European Economic Community. Then Jan Truszczynski worked as a European integration desk officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Polish People's Republic, and after that as a counselor at the Embassy of PPR in Brussels. However, for obvious reasons, European integration was not a priority for communist Poland.  The situation changed after 1989, when Poland embarked on the democratic path. For more than twenty years thereafter, until his retirement in 2014, Mr. Truszczynski worked as an Ambassador of Poland to the EU, Counselor to the President of Poland on European integration issues and the Government Commissioner of Poland’s accession negotiations with the EU. When the long way to the EU membership had succeeded, Jan Truszczynski continued working at the European Commission - first as a Deputy Director General for Enlargement, and then as a Director General for Education and Culture. Currently, Jan Truszczynski is a short-term expert of the Association4U Project and upon our request shares his experience of Poland’s reforms with Ukrainians.