The European Union has launched a €25 million project to support Ukraine’s digital transformation and harmonisation with the EU Digital Single Market. The EU4DigitalUA project, which kicked off in November, is the largest bilateral EU e-governance and digital programme in any partner country.
The project will support digital transformation, enhance cyber security and data protection, implementation of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, and broadband development.
“Ukraine is strongly committed to digital transformation. The EU supports Ukraine’s further digital development to raise the country’s competitiveness, improve electronic public services for Ukrainian citizens and businesses and foster approximation with the EU Digital Single Market,” said Ambassador Matti Maasikas, Head of Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine.
“We are grateful to the EU for supporting Ukraine’s digital transformation. For more than a year, the team of the Ministry of Digital Transformation has been building a digital state. One of our goals is to create convenient government services. We have already launched the mobile application and portal of electronic services Diia, introduced the world’s first digital passports and shortened business registration into 15 minutes. We are ready to share experiences with other countries and improve the projects we work on every day. Thanks to the EU assistance, Ukraine will raise the quality of digital changes,” said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov.
The Estonian e-Governance Academy leads the implementation of the electronic governance and cybersecurity tasks of the project, with a total budget of €9.6 million.
“The E-Governance Academy from Estonia has successfully implemented complex e-government projects in Ukraine since 2012. The data exchange system Trembita and the information system Vulyk for administrative service centres are the most remarkable fruits of our previous collaboration. We use our best practices of building the Estonian digital government to assist Ukrainian people in making their next leap towards a more transparent and efficient society,” said Hannes Astok, Executive Director of the e-Governance Academy.
The EU4DigitalUA programme is composed of the following six components:
- Interoperability and digital government infrastructure.
- Institutional strengthening and capacity development.
- Communication and public awareness.
- E-services development.
- Cyber security and data protection.
- Implementation of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement telecommunication chapter and support to government on broadband development.
EU4DigitalUA is a continuation of the EGOV4UKRAINE project activities of the first phase of U-LEAD with Europe programme, a multi-donor action of the European Union and its Member States Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Poland and Sweden. The EGOV4UKRAINE project developed and implemented a backbone for public e-services, the Trembita system, and the modern information system Vulyk for administrative service centres to support the provision of public services.